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Production of Nanoparticles in Thermal Plasmas: A Model Including Evaporation, Nucleation, Condensation, and Fractal Aggregation

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Abstract

In this work a coupled model for the production of nanoparticles in an inductively coupled plasma reactor is proposed. A Lagrangian approach is used to describe the evaporation of precursor particles and an Eulerian model accounting for particle nucleation, condensation, and fractal aggregation. The models of the precursor and nanoparticles are coupled with the magneto-hydrodynamic equations describing the plasma. The purpose of this study is to develop a model for the synthesis of particles in a thermal plasma reactor, which can be used to optimize industrial reactors. The growth of aggregates is considered by introducing a power law exponent D f. Results are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with existing experimental data from plasma reactors at a relatively large laboratory scale. The results obtained from the model confirm the previously observed importance of the quench strategy in defining the morphology of the nanoparticles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Modélisation Mathématique des Procédés Chimiques OPPUS, Chemical Engineering Department, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada, J1K 2R1

    Norma Yadira Mendoza Gonzalez, Mbark El Morsli & Pierre Proulx

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  1. Norma Yadira Mendoza Gonzalez
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Correspondence to Norma Yadira Mendoza Gonzalez.

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Mendoza Gonzalez, N.Y., El Morsli, M. & Proulx, P. Production of Nanoparticles in Thermal Plasmas: A Model Including Evaporation, Nucleation, Condensation, and Fractal Aggregation. J Therm Spray Tech 17, 533–550 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-008-9209-x

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