On the charged aerosols generated by atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma

Abstract

Recently, charged aerosols are used widely in many applications, such as fog elimination, inactivation of airborne viruses and so on. Atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma (APNP) have become an efficient way to generate charged aerosols. Except the traditional pin-plate or wire-plate APNP sources, the new APNP sources such as large scale corona discharge system and air plasma jet array are introduced. These sources can increase the ion density in open air and generate adjustable large plasma plume, which are helpful in increasing the charging efficiency on aerosols. Although the interactions between plasma and aerosols is quite complicated, the preliminary study suggests that the diffusion charging dominates aerosols below 0.1 μm, field charging dominates aerosols larger than 1 μm, and the photo charging also contributes to aerosols charging. These reactive charged aerosols have shown their potential in the artificial rain enhancement, biomedicine, and material processing. Finally, challenges and opportunities for theoretical, experimental, and application research in related cross-disciplinary areas are presented to stimulate critical discussions and collaborations in the future.