Comparison of size distributions of recovered particles generated from Ag wire in air by pulsed wire discharge and electric explosion of wire methods

Abstract

Electric explosion of a wire (EEW) with discharge and pulsed wire discharge (PWD) are essential methods for producing nanosized and micronized metal particles. The study of Ag particle size distributions is important for Ag particle recovery from photovoltaic panel sheets using these methods performed in previous studies. In this study, we examined the size distributions of Ag particles generated from an Ag wire in air by EEW and PWD to clarify the difference between, and effects of these methods on particle generation. The particle size distribution generated in PWD was concentrated in a narrower range. The simulation results suggest that volume expansion occurred for a liquidized Ag wire in EEW and for a gasified Ag wire in PWD. Visualized images of processes and current waveforms in EEW and PWD indicated that after the wire explosion the restrike with plasma occurred in the expanding Ag particles in air in PWD. These results suggest that the narrower particle size distribution obtained in PWD may be attributable to monodisperse powderization by plasma evaporation of the gasified wire. These results show that PWD with plasma of an Ag wire in air effectively creates particles that are more monodispersed than those formed by EEW.