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Matthew P. Simones
University of Missouri-Columbia
Advisor: Dr. Sudarshan Loyalka
Abstract
Aerosol particles in the atmosphere are often charged because of the generation as well as atmospheric processes. Particles generated within graphite moderated gas cooled very high temperature nuclear reactors, both during normal operation and following an accident, are also naturally charged due to abrasion, ionizing radiation, and radioactive decay of fission products present within the aerosol particles. Thus knowledge of the size and charge distributions of such aerosol is important in several areas. Recently a technique using a tandem differential mobility analyzer (TDMA) has been shown for obtaining the size and charge distributions for soot particles from pre-mixed and diffusion flames. The focus of this research is to construct and calibrate a TDMA for the measurement of size and charge distributions of graphite, gold, silver, and palladium aerosols generated from a spark discharge generator. The methodology and techniques used to construct and calibrate a working TDMA apparatus from multiple instruments is discussed along with some initial results. A manuscript, "Charge and Size Distribution Measurements of Carbon, Gold, Palladium, and Silver Nanoparticles, " by Matthew P. Simones, Veera R. Gutti, Ryan M. Meyer & Sudarshan K. Loyalka describing the work completed to date has been submitted towards consideration for publication in a technical journal.
Matthew Simones is a doctoral candidate in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
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