Unipolar Charging Research Articles

Technical note: Simplified approaches to estimate the output of particle mass analyzers paired with unipolar chargers

Particle mass analyzers (PMAs) classify particles by their mass-to-charge ratio. PMAs are often paired with bipolar chargers, which produce charge distributions that consist of positively-, negatively, and neutrally-charged particles, which greatly limits the transmission efficiency of PMAs and allows small, uncharged particles to be classified erroneously. These limitations provide an opportunity for unipolar chargers, which impart several charges per particle. However, the PMA setpoint (mass-to-charge ratio) loses physical meaning when the average number of charges per particle mass is unknown. The average charge of the PMA classified particles can be inferred from downstream size distribution measurements or by running detailed models. However, downstream measurements are often practically infeasible and detailed models require knowledge of the unclassified aerosol size and density. These challenges motivate a need for simplified approaches. Using simulations, we show that the unipolar charger-PMA average charge can be estimated to within ±20% for a reasonable range of parameters for typical aerosol scenarios. The most significant uncertainties behind the simplified approach are related to particle morphology (e.g., fractal versus spheroidal particles). Our simplified approach relies on the derivation of an empirical power-law relationship between the particle average charge and particle diameter, which is consistent with several previous experimental studies and existing models. The approaches described in this work improve the capabilities of unipolar charger-PMA systems to classify a known average mass (rather than a known mass-to-charge ratio) which is valuable for characterizing and calibrating the response of optical and mass instruments.

The transport dynamics of tens of micrometer-sized water droplets in RF atmospheric pressure glow discharges

Charging of particles having diameters of tens of microns has been extensively studied at atmospheric pressure in the context of, for example, electrostatic precipitators where the focus was on unipolar charging. The ambipolar charging of particles in atmospheric pressure plasmas, and of droplets in particular, has received less attention. The plasma activation of droplets is of interest for water purification, fertilizer production and materials synthesis, all of which depend on the transport of the droplets through the plasma, which in turn depends on their charging. In this paper, we report on the transport dynamics of water droplets, tens of microns in diameter, carried by the gas flow through an atmospheric pressure radiofrequency glow discharge sustained in helium. The droplets pass through the plasma with minimal evaporation and without reaching the Rayleigh limit. The droplet trajectory in the presence and absence of the plasma provides insights on the forces acting on the droplet. The measurements were analyzed using results from a three-dimensional fluid model and a two-dimensional plasma hydrodynamics model. We found that the transport dynamics as the droplet enters and leaves the plasma are due to differential charging of the droplet in the plasma gradients of the bounding sheaths to the plasma.

CoronaChargingFoam: An OpenFOAM based solver for multi-physical simulations of direct unipolar diffusion charging of aerosol particles

Diffusion charging of ultrafine aerosol particles is widely used in various fields and understanding the multi-physical phenomena during the charging processes is critical to the optimization of chargers and prediction of particle evolution in particulate systems. In this work, a numerical algorithm of unipolar aerosol diffusion charging is coupled with corona discharge, a combination of electric field, current continuity and heat transfer, and fluid flow enabling the modelling of multi-physics in direct charging processes. The governing equations are discretized based on the finite volume schemes. Methods of numerically calculating the ion-particle attachment coefficients are proposed and a class named niMixedFvPatchField describing the boundary condition of ion injection on the anode is defined on the basis of OpenFOAM libraries. Iteratively strategies are applied to uncouple the governing equations and the PISO (Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operators) algorithm is used to solve the aerosol flow equations. A new solver labelled as coronaChargingFoam in the OpenFOAM framework is developed to implement the numerical algorithm and it is further validated by comparing four test cases: Laplacian electric field, electric field-charge coupling effect, ion-particle attachment coefficients, and charging efficiencies. Acceptable agreement level in all these comparisons verifies the fidelity of the solver implementation. Program summaryProgram Title: coronaChargingFoamCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/vrfky24b8m.1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License (either version 3 or any later version)Programming language: C++External routines/libraries: OpenFOAM (http://www.openfoam.org)Nature of problem: coronaChargingFoam solves the problem of aerosol charging dynamics in direct unipolar diffusion chargers in which the equations of diffusion charging are coupled with corona discharge, a combination of electric field, current continuity and heat transfer, and fluid flow enabling the modelling of multi-physics in direct charging processes.Solution method: coronaChargingFoam employs the Finite-volume method to discretize the governing equations. Iteratively strategies are applied to uncouple the multi-physical equations and the PISO algorithm is used to solve the flow fields. Simpson method and Fibonacci approach are employed in the calculation of ion-particle attachment coefficients. A new class, niMixedFvPatchField, is defined to describe the ion-injection boundary condition on the anode.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: The current version of the solver can only be applied in diffusion charging for monodisperse aerosol particles. This restriction will be relaxed in near future by adopting models for polydisperse particles and incorporating field charging mechanism.

Open-source modelling of aerosol dynamics and computational fluid dynamics: Bipolar and unipolar diffusion charging and photoelectric charging

Electric charging is one of the essential aerosol dynamic mechanisms and is harnessed for detection, capture and control of ultrafine aerosol particles in a range of devices. For simplicity, charging and transport mechanisms are commonly modelled with zero spatial dimensions (0-D) and averaged properties such as mean charge or mean particle diameter. These models often neglect localised effects of the flow distribution, diffusion, discrete charge states, and particle polydispersity, often proving inadequate to explain experimental data. This work aims to provide an open-source three-dimensional (3-D) aerosol charging and transport model including bipolar and unipolar diffusion charging, and photoelectric charging algorithms for use in detailed design and analyses of aerosol systems. The computational model consists of more than 200 particle transport equations for discrete charge states and polydisperse sizes coupled with ion conservation equations in the framework of OpenFOAM, an open-source computational fluid dynamics platform. Three test cases are introduced to verify implementation of three charging models by comparison with published literature: bipolar and unipolar diffusion charging, and photoelectric charging. Tutorial cases, which model three distinct aerosol sensors, are described and demonstrate the capabilities of the 3-D aerosol charging and transport models within the predetermined flow field. The aerosolChargingFoam code is available at https://openaerosol.sourceforge.io for widespread use and can be further modified under the GNU general public licence. Program summaryProgram title: aerosolChargingFoamCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/4pf4n2vg9f.1Developer's repository link:https://openaerosol.sourceforge.io/Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3Programming language: C++Nature of problem: aerosolChargingFoam solves generalised aerosol electrical charging and transport equations coupled with computational fluid dynamics using the open-source computational platform, OpenFOAM [1]. The electric charging algorithm including unipolar diffusion charging, bipolar diffusion charging, and photoelectric charging is verified with zero-dimensional test cases [2-4] and generalized to three-dimensional monodisperse or polydisperse particle distributions for more than 50 particle charge states. aerosolChargingFoam can be straightforwardly coupled with other existing solvers, which enables computations of complex multi-physics aerosol charging processes in practical conditions.Solution method: aerosolChargingFoam employs an explicit time-stepping for the time-dependent source terms for generalised aerosol charging. The solution methods and schemes provided by OpenFOAM 9 are used for solving the spatial and time derivatives in the transport equations.

Effect of aerosol concentration on post-corona unipolar diffusion charging: Ion density retro-controlled by aerosol space charge versus geometry of ion-aerosol mixing

The influence of aerosol concentration on the charge per particle is investigated in post-DC corona diffusion chargers for particle diameter between 10 nm and 1 µm. Particles are charged as they pa...

Unipolar and bipolar aerosol charging as time continuous Markov processes

The acquisition of charge by aerosol particles is well-known to be stochastic in nature. We review the principles of charging using the conceptually and computationally clear language of continuous time Markov processes. A novel numeric approach is presented that can be used to calculate the time evolution of various particle charging processes. Its modular character makes it easy to implement and allows for quick adaptation to specific problems. We conclude with the application of ergodicity for finite state-space Markov processes in order to determine stationary charge distributions in case of bipolar charging.

A Build-In Data Inversion Method to Retrieve Aerosol Size Distributions for a Portable Ultrafine Particle Sizer (PUPS)

A build-in data inversion method to retrieve aerosol size distributions based on the principle of particle electrical mobility has been introduced, whose required computational effort is low for a portable ultrafine particle sizer (PUPS). The PUPS is cost-effective for the measurements of the fine and ultrafine particles in polluted environments near-source (e.g., cities with high traffic density, freeways, airports or stationary combustion sources). The particle sizer is mainly composed of a unipolar charger, a plate differential mobility analyzer (PDMA), and a Faraday cup electrometer (FCE). The classification efficiencies of the PDMA are strongly dependent on the charging distribution of the unipolar charger, in which multiple charging is more significant than that for a bipolar charger. To reduce the excessive overlap in the kernel function caused by multiple charging, a guidance method for selecting the classification voltages and operating parameters of the PDMA is proposed with the help of MATLAB. Subsequently, a combination of the nonnegative least squares (NNLS) algorithm and post facto smoothing method has been employed to derive the discretized solution of the Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. In the end, the accuracy and stability of the proposed approach are tested under a range of particle size distribution scenarios. The synthesized data results show that for the unimodal aerosol distribution, almost all of the relative errors are less than 20 %, regardless of nonideal operating conditions. The inversion algorithm can be run on Cortex-M3, an ARM embedded chip for low-cost and low-power consumption applications. When a reasonable error range can be permitted, the inversion algorithm can meet the requirements of the PUPS.

Development and validation of an intra-calibration procedure for MiniDISCs measuring ultrafine particles in multi-spatial indoor environments

Since the real exposure to indoor ultrafine particles depends on temporal and spatial variation of aerosol concentration, particles dynamic behavior becomes relevant in studying indoor pollution. With this aim, the characterization of Ultrafine Particles (UFPs) variability within different environments (multi-spatial indoor environments) can be regarded as a specific tool in assessing the human exposure. In the case of urban indoor environments, instruments able to measure UFPs at high time resolution with high sensitivity are needed, lightweight and silent. For this purpose, personal monitors unipolar diffusion charging based could be used for their ease of use. Among them, Miniature DIffusion Size Classifier (MiniDISC), a small, silent and wearable analyzer measures particle number concentration, particle modal size and lung deposited surface area of nanoparticles at high time resolution, for dynamic or static use. Nevertheless, the typical ±30% accuracy specified by the manufacturer does not make this sensor reliable enough to measure gradients of urban doses of UFPs occurring in multi-spatial indoor environments.The presented work aims at improving the performances of MiniDISCs for their use in simultaneous measurement of urban UFPs by a multiple set-up, such as in indoor environments inside a building.For this purpose, a new intra-calibration procedure has been developed among MiniDISCs, named Best Intra-calibration (BIC), which corrects data of electrical signals of two or more instruments to those of one selected as reference. Compared to a linear regression analysis for PNC of UFPs, BIC procedure has two main advantages. First, it makes it possible to improve simultaneously the precision of particle number concentration (PNC) and particle modal size (PMS). Secondly, it allows multiple instruments to operate as a fleet, such as a spatial delocalization of an instrument in multiple environments.The procedure was tested in realistic environmental conditions, evaluating indoor PNC and PMS of UFPs by both parallel samplings and multi-spatial samplings. Three types of monitoring campaigns were carried out: inter-comparisons between PNC of UFPs from three MiniDISCs and one Condensation Particle Counter; intra-comparisons between PNC and PMS of UFPs from three MiniDISCs; urban monitoring in-field campaign of UFPs with three MiniDISCs in an indoor workplace, a physic laboratory, in the next hallway and outside. The latter campaign aimed at evaluating how UFPs are influenced by the interaction among different environments inside the building and by the work activity. For these purposes, the dynamical behavior and the ratios Indoor to Outdoor were investigated, in addition to a novel ratio Indoor to Hallway. The BIC procedure allows increasing the precision measured by the weighted coefficients of variation CVs of about 7 times. The results support the novel Intra-calibration procedure to improve the intra variability of MiniDISCs in parallel sampling, making them attractive for measuring UFPs by both the metrics PNC and PMS in multi-spatial indoor environments.

Post-corona unipolar chargers with tuneable aerosol size-charge relations: Parameters affecting ion dispersion and particle trajectories for charger designs

This paper focusses on the mean charge per particle of monodisperse submicron aerosol, charged by diffusion of unipolar ions in post-corona discharge. It aims to confirm and discuss the limits of considering a single value of Ni$\times$t to describe aerosol charging and then to present methods to control the size-charge relation. Three aerosol chargers, with different mixings of ion and aerosol flows are investigated. Despite comparable ion sources with discharge currents of a few tens of $\mu$A, the size-charge relations differs from one charger to another due to different ion-aerosol mixing conditions and subsequent ion density along particles trajectories. Discrepancies are even more noticeable as the particle size increases. Discharge current, velocities of ion and aerosol flows and electric field control post-discharge ion density in each point of the charging volume. The control of particle trajectory in expanding unipolar ion cloud, leads to tuneable size-charge relations. Aerosol inertia and charging dynamics, that both depends on particle size, affects the Ni$\times$t experienced by the particle and thus the final charge of the particle. Operating conditions to reach a constant mean charge for particles larger than 200 nm are reported. Conclusions provide a basis to design aerosol chargers devoted to electric mobility selection for aerosol deposition, separation or electrical measurements especially to overcome the limits of mobility-to-size data inversion due to multiple charge ambiguity using diffusion chargers.

An experimentally validated model of diffusion charging of arbitrary shaped aerosol particles

Particle shape strongly influences the diffusion charging of aerosol particles exposed to bipolar/unipolar ions and accurate modeling is needed to predict the charge distribution of non-spherical particles. A prior particle-ion collision kernel βi model including Coulombic and image potential interactions for spherical particles is generalized for arbitrary shapes following a scaling approach that uses a continuum and free molecular particle length scale and Langevin dynamics simulations of non-spherical particle-ion collisions for attractive Coulomb-image potential interactions. This extended βi model for collisions between unlike charged particle-ion (bipolar charging) and like charged particle-ion (unipolar charging) is validated by comparing against published experimental data of bipolar charge distributions for diverse shapes. Comparison to the bipolar charging data for spherical particles shows good agreement in air, argon, and nitrogen, while also demonstrating high accuracy in predicting charge states up to ±6. Comparisons to the data for fractal aggregates reveal that the LD-based βi model predicts within overall ±30% without any systematic bias. The mean charge on linear chain aggregates and charge fractions on cylindrical particles is found to be in good agreement with the measurements (~±20% overall). The comparison with experimental results supports the use of LD-based diffusion charging models to predict the bipolar and unipolar charge distribution of arbitrary shaped aerosol particles for a wide range of particle size, and gas temperature, pressure. The presented βi model is valid for perfectly conducting particles and in the absence of external electric fields; these simplifications need to be addressed in future work on particle charging.

Structural Formation of the Cement Pastes Based on the Concrete Modified Dispersed Mineral Components

With the increase in the number of finely dispersed mineral additives in concrete, their water demand increases and the effect of micro-filling weakens. To solve this problem, various methods of dry surface modification are proposed. As a result of the finely dispersed mineral powders’ surface modification, an improvement in their rheological characteristics, a decrease in wettability, a change in granulometry and other properties are achieved. This article discusses the surface modification effect’s laws in a high-voltage electric field on the autogenous properties of mineral dispersed concrete components, structure formation processes, mechanical properties, and cement stone hydration products. According to the results of the study, it was found that the surface modification of bulk materials - concrete components - in a high-voltage electric field changes autohesion properties in comparison with control samples. The data indicate lower values ​​of bulk density and angle of repose. This is due to a change in the balance of forces that arise during the mutual contact of particles after surface modification. With a certain balance of these forces, autohesion will contribute to the dense packing of particles and thereby affect the structure formation processes. The results of changes in the plastic strength of cement pastes confirm that there is an intensification of the structure formation process. Moreover, a more intense increase in plastic strength is observed during bipolar charging of particles in comparison with unipolar charging. This is due to an increase in the number of heterogeneous charges in the system and, as a consequence, an increase in the strength of adhesive contacts, as evidenced by the data of X-ray phase analysis.

The Activation Technology for the Surface Modification High Voltage Electric Field Dispersed Mineral Additives for Concrete

The aim of the research was to study the activation technology of the materials for concrete by their surface modification in a high-voltage electric field. It is noted that the mineral additives modified in a high-voltage electric field are characterized by a higher activity of the calcium hydroxide absorption. It was established that, despite the presence of a large number of crystalline compounds in metakaolin, its pozzolanic activity in the absorption of calcium hydroxide from a saturated solution is quite high. The same value of the hydration activity coefficient is also determined for the ground slag. The authors found that a characteristic feature of the dispersed mineral additives, surface-modified in a high-voltage electric field in comparison with control samples, are the lower values ​​of bulk density and repose angle. This is due to a change in the forces balance that occurs during the mutual contact of particles. The influence of the mineral additives’ surface modification in a high-voltage electric field on interparticle interactions in the “solid – liquid” system is evaluated. It is established that in the absence of a repulsion barrier, the particles form the aggregates that increase their sedimentation rate. During unipolar or bipolar charging of particles in an electric field, the sedimentation rate slows down or accelerates accordingly. These effects are used to modify the cement surface.

On the saturation of unipolar and bipolar diffusion charging of aerosols

Modification of the traditional unipolar charging theory by consideration of the adsorption-desorption of ions on the particle surface is considered in the whole range of the Knudsen number. It is ...

Size and structural characterization of Si nanocrystal aggregates from a low pressure nonthermal plasma reactor

Si nanocrystals (NCs) are synthesizable in low-pressure plasmas with narrow diameter distributions because of unipolar negative charging in the plasma. However, NCs must pass into a spatial afterglow, where NCs may decharge and aggregate. We use both low-pressure differential mobility analysis and quantitative TEM image analysis to examine Si NCs sampled from a 2 Torr Ar-SiH4 plasma reactor. We find that Si NCs are incorporated into aggregates largely composed of 20 and fewer primary particles with nearly equal concentrations of negatively and positively charged NCs. The projected areas of aggregates scale with aggregate volume in similar manner to the scaling observed for aggregates from atmospheric pressure systems. Higher aggregate concentration is observed with increasing flow rate, while larger aggregate size is found with increasing precursor concentration. Measurements show that the spatial afterglow has a significant influence on the charge and extent of NC aggregation.

Largely enhanced electrostatic generator based on a bipolar electret charged by patterned contact micro-discharge and optimized substrates

With the rapid development of wearable electronic devices and internet of things, harvesting mechanical energy from the surroundings to generate electric power has attracted intensive interests. Here, we demonstrate a rotary electrostatic generator based on a patterned positive and negative charged electret and optimal substrates of the electrode and electret. The bipolar charged electret is prepared using the patterned contact micro-discharge method with a pair of patterned electrodes. The generator obtains a double effective charge density by bipolar charging, which increases the output power by a factor of 4 compared to that of the conventional one based on unipolar charging. Moreover, the foam electrode substrate with the effective relative permittivity of 1.15 reduces the inherent capacitance of the generator, increasing the maximum average output power by a factor of 1.33 than that with a normal printed circuit board substrate. Totally, the maximum average output power of this generator is 5.3 times as high as that of the conventional one. In addition, we found that the electret substrate had a great influence on the output performance of the generator too, and there is an optimal electret substrate with the relative permittivity of 4.5. An electret substrate with low permittivity reduces the induced charge density on working electrodes of the generator, which contradicts the theory and requires further research.

Modeling and Design of Passive Shield to Limit EMF Emission and to Minimize Shield Loss in Unipolar Wireless Charging System for EV

In this paper, a detailed lumped model of the shield is developed, and an optimization method is proposed to minimize the shield loss while suppressing the emission within the standard limit. The electromagnetic emission in a wireless charging system (WCS) is a serious concern for health and safety, especially for medium- and high-power applications, where strong magnetic field propagates through a large air gap. Usually, a flat aluminum plate is used as a shield to suppress the emission outside the charging area. This field emission increases proportionally with the coil ampere turn; therefore, a much higher shield current is required to suppress the additional emission under the limit set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. In this paper, a novel hybrid shield structure is proposed to limit the electromagnetic field (EMF) emission, as well as to minimize the shield loss. The proposed shielding is evaluated on a laboratory prototype of 7-kW WCS designed for electric vehicle application. The experimental result shows that, while suppressing the EMF under the limit, the shield loss has been reduced by 21% compared to the commonly used aluminum shield.

Concept for an electrostatic focusing device for continuous ambient pressure aerosol concentration

Abstract. We present a concept for enhancing the concentration of charged submicron aerosol particles in a continuous-flow stream using in situ electrostatic focusing. It is proposed that electrostatic focusing can enable the continuous, isothermal concentration of aerosol particles at ambient pressure, without altering their chemical composition. We model this approach theoretically and demonstrate proof of concept via laboratory measurements using a prototype. The prototype design consists of a nozzle-probe flow system analogous to a virtual impactor. The device was tested in the laboratory using submicron, monodisperse stearic acid particles. Particles were charged using a unipolar charger then concentrated using a cylindrical electrostatic immersion lens to direct the charged submicron particles into the sample probe. Under applied lens voltages ranging from 0 V to 30 kV, aerosol concentration increased up to 15 %. Observed particle enrichment varied as a function of voltage and particle diameter. These results suggest that an imposed electric field can be used to increase aerosol concentration in a continuous flow. This approach shows promise in increasing the effective enriched size range of virtual impactors or other continuous-flow methods of collection.

Growth of nanoparticles in dynamic plasma.

Coagulation growth kinetics of nanoparticles in plasma is affected by interparticle electrostatic forces due to the charging phenomenon. In stationary plasmas, unipolar charging of particles results in retardation of particle growth and may result in a limitation on particle size. We demonstrate the opposite effect of enhanced particle growth in atmospheric pressure nonstationary arc discharge. Modeling of the nanoparticle growth kinetics reveals the formation of a bipolar charge distribution. As a result, reversed (attractive) Coulomb forces promote the formation of micrometer-size particles in a millisecond timescale as observed in experiment.

Maximizing the singly charged fraction of sub-micrometer particles using a unipolar charger

Particle charging via the mixing of aerosols with unipolar ions typically results in multiple charges on particles. Particle classification and sizing, based on the electrical mobility, ideally req...

A soft X-ray unipolar charger for ultrafine particles

The performance of a unipolar particle charger using soft X-ray as the ion production source was optimized and characterized in this study. The charger design was based on the high efficiency particle charger reported by Chen and Pui (1999), in which the radioactive material (210Po) as the ion source and sheath flow for minimizing the particle loss were used. The use of 210Po source makes it challenging for field investigation due to the regulation of controlled substances. The inclusion of sheath flow in the high efficiency charger inevitably dilutes the output particle concentration, which is an undesired effect for the measurement of atmospheric ultrafine particles. The current soft X-ray charger was designed to ease the above concerns. The penetration efficiency, intrinsic and extrinsic charging efficiency, and extrinsic charge distributions of particles passing through the charger were measured under the optimal voltage operation. It was found that the loss of ultrafine particles in the charger was higher than that in the high efficiency charger (due to the lack of applying sheath flow). At the flow rate of 5.0 lpm, the measured extrinsic charging efficiency was comparable to that of the charger applied in the thermal desorption chemical ionization mass spectrometer (Smith et al., 2004). The measured extrinsic charge distribution of particles further showed that more than 50% of particles in the size range of 20–40 nm and 20–50 nm were singly charged at the flow rate of 1.5 lpm and 5.0 lpm, respectively.