Transient three-dimensional dynamics of argon plasma within the vacuum interface of the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer system

Force-based analysis of vortexes in atmospheric pressure ICPs

“…Another ICP model is a three-dimensional (3D) model that also includes evolution of the ICP over time. It was developed first by the Colombo group [24,44] and later by Shigeta [33] and by Nagulin, Tsivilskiy et al [25,26]. The undoubted advantages of these models are the simulation of turbulence in the plasma and 3D effects.…”

“…Among other plasma sources, atmospheric pressure inductively coupled plasmas (ICPs) are characterized by high enthalpy and plasma density, an absence of electrodes resulting in a high purity of the plasma, and flexibility of parameters. Because of this the ICPs have found strong practical applications in the processing of various substances, namely in the spheroidization of powder particles ([1-8] and references therein), the production of nanoparticles ( [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and references therein), and as a source for atomic analysis ( [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] and references therein). The first two types are denoted here as technological ICPs (TICPs) while the last type is a spectroanalytical ICP (SICP).…”

Numerical Simulation of Flow Field and Ion Transport for Different Ion Source Sampling Interfaces of a Mass Spectrometer

“…This study considered the distribution of the Knudsen number (Kn, a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the molecular mean-free-path length to a representative physical length scale) in the first vacuum region to validate the application of the N–S solvers. The maximum Knudsen number in their simulation was about 0.09, which indicates a slip flow regime, but nonequilibrium effects due to flow rarefaction were not accounted for in their model …”

“…Subsequently, the effect of the heated capillary diameter on the ion transmission rate was studied with the same method. 27 A numerical simulation of a sampling interface with a skimmer 28 was carried out to study the dynamics of an argon plasma in an inductively coupled plasma MS. This study considered the distribution of the Knudsen number (Kn, a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the molecular mean-free-path length to a representative physical length scale) in the first vacuum region to validate the application of the N− S solvers.…”

“…The maximum Knudsen number in their simulation was about 0.09, which indicates a slip flow regime, 29 but nonequilibrium effects due to flow rarefaction were not accounted for in their model. 28 In the majority of the work reported in the literature, a conventional CFD method based on the N−S equations was applied to the ion source region with near-atmospheric pressures, while the DSMC method was used in the vacuum region for relatively lower pressures (typically lower than several millibar (<1 Torr)). In the transition between these two regions (for example, the front end of the first vacuum region in a Waters' Z-spray system 30 ), the minimum pressure can reach up to 10 mbar (>7 Torr), which typically corresponds to the "slip flow regime" based on the Knudsen number.…”