Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, Vol.16, No.2, 249-264, 1996
Homogeneous Nucleation of Metals in a Plasma-Quench Reactor
We present a new and general application of the method of moments for modeling the nucleation of condensates in a steady-state supersonic nozzle flow generatd in a plasma-quench reactor. A closed set of growth/evaporation rate equations has been employed to propagate the moments of the particle size distribution without invoking the usual coarse-graining or truncation approximations of conventional binning approaches. The method has been employed to calculate the nucleation rates. particle number density, and the particle-size distribution for 11 elemental metals (Ag, Al, Be, Ce, Cr, Fe, Gd, Ti, Th, U, and Zr) condensing in a model argon nozzle flow. We have identified the regions in the nozzle of maximum nucleation rate, and have shown how different particle-size distributions can develop in different regions.