Enhancement of extrinsic charging efficiency of a nanoparticle charger with multiple discharging wires

A unipolar charger with multiple discharging wires has been developed and investigated to enhance the extrinsic charging efficiency of nanoparticles by using sheath air near the wall of the charger. The applied voltage of the charger ranged from +4.0 to +10 kV, corresponding to corona current from 0.02 to 119.63 μA. Monodisperse NaCl particles of 10 ∼ 50 nm and Ag particles of 2.5 ∼ 10 nm in diameter were produced to test the performance of the charger with multiple discharging wires and to investigate the particle loss at different sheath flow rates, corona voltages and sheath air velocities. Results showed that the optimal efficiency in the charger was obtained at +9 kV applied voltage, 10 L/min aerosol flow rate and 20 L/min sheath air flow rate. The extrinsic charging efficiency increased from 2.86% to 86.3% in the charger as the particle diameter increasing from 2.5 to 50 nm. The TDMA (tandem-differential mobility analyzer) technique was used to investigate the charge distribution, and the charge distributions in the exit were obtained at the optimal operating condition.