Ion-induced aerosol formation in a H 2O-H 2SO 4 system—II. Numerical calculations and conclusions

Abstract

The results of an experiment that was set up to demonstrate the occurrence of ion-induced aerosol formation (see Part I of this paper, Raes and Janssens, 1985) are analysed quantitatively by modelling the dynamics of aerosol formation and growth under different irradiation conditions. The model calculations indicate that ion-induced aerosol formation may contribute significantly to the total particle formation in a gas mixture that is simultaneously being irradiated with u.v. and γ irradiation. However, the measurements do not appear to be accurate enough to support these calculations. A qualitative comparison of the experiments with the calculations suggests that ion-induced nucleation is actually occurring in our experiments and that the classical theory of ion-induced aerosol formation may underestimate the actual rate of aerosol formation around ions.