Steady state homogeneous nucleation rate and primary particle size distribution

Abstract

A self-consistent, analytic model for the steady state homogeneous nucleation rate and primary particle size distribution is presented. Classical homogeneous nucleation models give the rate of particle production, but are silent on the resulting primary particle size distribution. This size distribution is important for determining the dynamics of the resulting particles in the environment or for industrial applications. When the evolution of the particle size distribution has been considered, nucleation has generally been decoupled from subsequent particle dynamics. Therefore, a size distribution for the primary particles had to be assumed. The present model is an analytic solution of the steady state cluster concentration evolution equations, including terms for particle transport from the region where nucleation is occurring. Therefore, both the nucleation rate and primary particle size distribution are calculated on the same basis. The classical homogeneous nucleation rate equations are a special case...