Mechanics and charging of nanoparticle agglomerates.

Abstract

This thesis consists of two parts. The first part concerns studies on mechanics of real agglomerate particles and the second part involves studies on unipolar diffusion charging of agglomerates. Understanding mechanics of real agglomerate particles consisting of multiple primary particles is important for aerosol sizing instrumentation using electrical mobility and nanoparticle manufacturing process where coagulation and sedimentation occur. A key quantity determining transport properties of agglomerates is the friction coefficient. However, quantitative studies for the friction coefficient of agglomerates are very limited. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) image analysis results of silver agglomerates provides a basis for the comparison of experimental data with estimates based on free molecular models. A new quantitative method to determine the dynamic shape factor and the two exponents, η and Dfm, which characterize the power law dependence of friction coefficient on the number of primary spheres and the mass on the mobility diameter, was developed using Differential Mobility Analyzer (DMA)- Aerosol Particle Mass (APM) analyzer. Model predictions indicate that η is independent of agglomerate size while Dfm is sensitive to agglomerate size. Experimentally, it appears the opposite is true. Tandem DMA (TDMA) results also show that the massmobility diameter scaling exponent is not dependent on mobility size range. Estimates of non-ideal effects on the agglomerate dynamics were computed as perturbations to the Chan-Dahneke agglomerate model. After the corrections, an agreement between experimental data and model predictions becomes significantly improved. Unipolar diffusion charging becomes more attractive because it has higher charging efficiency than bipolar charging as well as important applications in aerosol sizing instrumentation using electrical mobility, powder coating, and the removal of toxic particles from air stream using Electrostatic Precipitator. It has been reported that the particle morphology affects both bipolar and unipolar charging processes. Nevertheless, knowledge about the charging of non-spherical particles such as asbestos fibers and fractal agglomerates is still lacking. From this study it was found that the effect of dielectric constant of materials on unipolar diffusion charging of nanoparticles is very small and the experimental results are in a good agreement with Fuchs (1963)’ theory. The effect of agglomerate morphology on unipolar charging characteristic was examined both experimentally and analytically in terms of the mean charge per particle. Both geometric surface area and electrical capacitance are known as two important parameters to determine the mean charge of non-spherical particles. A new model to predict the electrical capacitance of loose agglomerate particles as a function of mobility diameter was developed incorporating electrical mobility and electrostatics theories. This study shows that the electrical capacitance contributes to increase the mean charge per particle of agglomerates more than the geometric surface area, especially in the transition regime. The estimates of geometric surface area and electrical capacitance were used to predict the mean charge from Chang (1981)’s model and the predicted results are reasonably in good agreement with experimental data.