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

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.

Carbon Blacks Produced by Thermal Plasma: the Influence of the Reactor Geometry on the Product Morphology

“…The following assumptions were considered to solve the plasma flow model: two dimensional (2D) model with fully axisymmetric configuration, steady state flow neglecting gravity effects, turbulence effects included using the RNG k-epsilon model, argon plasma at local thermodynamic equilibrium, optically thin plasma and the use of a net emission coefficient. The solution for the electromagnetic fields for plasma generation was based on previous modeling studies [15]. Since our interest was to observe the velocity, temperature and recirculation patterns, the model was simplified to pure argon, implying that no carbon species were considered at this stage.…”

Design-Oriented Modelling of Different Quenching Solutions in Induction Plasma Synthesis of Copper Nanoparticles

“…where the terms [̇] represent the net production rates due to nucleation, condensation and coagulation, whose exhaustive description can be found in [20]. is the total diffusion coefficient accounting for both turbulent and laminar diffusion, calculated as in [6].…”

Carbon Nanoparticle Production by Inductively Coupled Thermal Plasmas: Controlling the Thermal History of Particle Nucleation

“…The RNG k-epsilon model is a renormalization of the Navier-Stokes equation to account for the effects of smaller scales of motion. The solution of the electromagnetic fields for the plasma generation was based on previous modeling studies [10]. The actual operating conditions were accounted in the model by specifying the following boundary conditions for the inlet flow rates for the axial probe injection, central and sheath gas, respectively: Q 1 = 5 slpm, Q 2 = 15 slpm, and Q 3 = 60 slpm.…”