Atmospheric-pressure particle mass spectrometer for investigating particle growth in spray flames
Samer Suleiman, Monika Nanjaiah, Ivan Skenderović, Thore Rosenberger, Frederik Kunze, Irenäus Wlokas, Frank Einar Kruis, Hartmut Wiggers, Christof Schulz
Abstract
In this work, we introduce a new particle mass spectrometer (AP-PMS) that is able to detect particle-size distributions at ambient pressure using a three-stage pumping design. This device is demonstrated for direct sampling from the particle formation in spray-flame synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles. Aerosol sampling is performed by a probe with integrated dilution that has been characterized and configured by computational fluid dynamics simulations and the chamber-skimmer system has been investigated by schlieren imaging. The system was validated by detailed characterization of a standardized sooting flame and by iron oxide nanoparticles generated in the SpraySyn burner from iron nitrate dissolved in a mixture of ethanol and 2-ethylhexanoic acid. The PMS results are compared to additional inline measurements with SMPS and ELPI + as well as with TEM measurements of thermophoretically sampled materials from the same location in the spray flame.