Abstract
In a previous work, gas-phase synthesis of silver nanoparticles through
evaporation of silver powder and subsequent particle nucleation by
cooling was shown to be a viable method for achieving high purity silver
nanoparticles (Backman et al. J Nanopart Res 4:325–335, 2002).
In order to control the size of the produced nanoparticles, careful
design of the reactor is required with respect to thermal and flow
characteristics. In the present work, the silver nanoparticle reactor is
rigorously simulated by means of multidimensional computational fluid
and particle dynamics. The CFD-computed flow is input for a combined
simulation of the vapour field and particle homogeneous nucleation,
growth and coagulation. The results are compared with the experimental
data and with the predictions from the usually employed simple model of
an idealized plug flow reactor. The multidimensional CFD-based analysis
is shown to explain and help understand different aspects of the reactor
operation and size distribution of the particles produced. Yet the
simple plug flow method is found to provide reasonable accuracy when an
appropriate correction factor is used for the nucleation rate.
Considering its robustness and computational simplicity, the plug flow
method can be qualified as adequate from the engineering practical point
of view for the case of silver nanoparticle reactors.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 153-161 |
Journal | Journal of Nanoparticle Research |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | Suppl. 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- Aerosol modelling
- Aerosol reactors
- Computational fluid-particle dynamics
- Nanomanufacturing
- Silver nanoparticles