AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Measuring Flame-generated Sub-3-nm Particle Size Distributions with a TSI 1-nm DMA and Nano Enhancer
YANG WANG, Sherrie Elzey, Pratim Biswas, Washington University in St Louis
Abstract Number: 111 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract While flame synthesis is a dominant method for producing nanoparticles in large quantities, the initial stages of particle formation during combustion are not fully understood. Existing work conducted with a high-resolution differential mobility analyzer (DMA) coupled with an electrometer have shown that a large amount of highly charged sub-3-nm particles can be generated from flames (Wang et al, 2014; Fang et al, 2014). However, measuring nanoparticle concentration with electrometers may suffer from background noise and high detection limits, especially for the smallest nuclei particles < 3 nm. Newly developed CPCs with enhanced working fluids, such as diethylene glycol (DEG), can significantly lower the limit of detection for sub-3-nm particles. In this study, flame-generated sub-3-nm particle size distributions were measured for the first time with a 1-nm DMA (TSI 3086) coupled with a DEG-based Nano Enhancer (TSI 3777) and a butanol-based CPC (TSI 3772). A comparison against a conventional SMPS system which includes a Nano DMA (TSI 3085) and a butanol-based CPC (TSI 3025A) was conducted. The effects of the synthesis precursor type, precursor concentration, and particle residence time on the particle size distribution were further investigated.
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