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Wang Y, Zhan S, Hu Y, Chen X, Yin S. Understanding the Formation and Growth of New Atmospheric Particles at the Molecular Level through Laboratory Molecular Beam Experiments. Chempluschem 2024; 89:e202400108. [PMID: 38497136 DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202400108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF), which exerts comprehensive implications for climate, air quality and human health, has received extensive attention. From molecule to cluster is the initial and most important stage of the nucleation process of atmospheric new particles. However, due to the complexity of the nucleation process and limitations of experimental characterization techniques, there is still a great uncertainty in understanding the nucleation mechanism at the molecular level. Laboratory-based molecular beam methods can experimentally implement the generation and growth of typical atmospheric gas-phase nucleation precursors to nanoscale clusters, characterize the key physical and chemical properties of clusters such as structure and composition, and obtain a series of their physicochemical parameters, including association rate coefficients, electron binding energy, pickup cross section and pickup probability and so on. These parameters can quantitatively illustrate the physicochemical properties of the cluster, and evaluate the effect of different gas phase nucleation precursors on the formation and growth of atmospheric new particles. We review the present literatures on atmospheric cluster formation and reaction employing the experimental method of laboratory molecular beam. The experimental apparatuses were classified and summarized from three aspects of cluster generation, growth and detection processes. Focus of this review is on the properties of nucleation clusters involving different precursor molecules of water, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and NxOy, respectively. We hope this review will provide a deep insight for effects of cluster physicochemical properties on nucleation, and reveal the formation and growth mechanism of atmospheric new particle at the molecular level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadong Wang
- MOE & Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science & Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Spectral Analysis and Functional Probes, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, P. R. China
| | - Shiyu Zhan
- MOE & Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science & Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Spectral Analysis and Functional Probes, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, P. R. China
| | - Yongjun Hu
- MOE & Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science & Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Spectral Analysis and Functional Probes, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, P. R. China
| | - Xi Chen
- National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P. R. China
| | - Shi Yin
- MOE & Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science & Institute of Laser Life Science & Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Spectral Analysis and Functional Probes, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, P. R. China
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2
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Ma Y, Huang M, Mutschke G, Zhang X. Nucleation of surface nanobubbles in electrochemistry: Analysis with nucleation theorem. J Colloid Interface Sci 2024; 654:859-867. [PMID: 37898070 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.10.102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2023] [Revised: 10/12/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/30/2023]
Abstract
The formation of single bubbles at nanoelectrodes during electrochemical reactions allows to accurately identify the critical nucleus for bubble formation. As demonstrated before, combining nanoelectrode experiments and an analysis approach based on classical nucleation theory (CNT) delivers useful insight into bubble nucleation. In this work we propose an alternative approach to analyze the critical nuclei by applying the nucleation theorem (NT), which is able to overcome the inherent shortcomings of CNT. The size of the critical nucleus can be calculated more accurately by fitting experimental data in a simple form of the NT. Simulating the local gas concentration using a finite element approach, and considering the effect of gas oversaturation on the interfacial tension and the real gas compressibility, we obtain a more realistic estimation of the critical nuclei morphology. With the NT-based analysis presented, we re-analyze the nucleation data reported before. The properties of the critical nuclei obtained here are roughly consistent with those obtained from the CNT-based approach. In addition, we confirm that the critical nucleus for bubble formation in high gas oversaturation is featured with a contact angle much larger than Young's contact angle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunqing Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Mengyuan Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden 01328, Germany.
| | - Gerd Mutschke
- Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden 01328, Germany
| | - Xianren Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
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3
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Sun T, Wilemski G, Hale BN, Wyslouzil BE. The effects of methanol clustering on methanol–water nucleation. J Chem Phys 2022; 157:184301. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0120876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The formation of subcritical methanol clusters in the vapor phase is known to complicate the analysis of nucleation measurements. Here, we investigate how this process affects the onset of binary nucleation as dilute water–methanol mixtures in nitrogen carrier gas expand in a supersonic nozzle. These are the first reported data for water–methanol nucleation in an expansion device. We start by extending an older monomer–dimer–tetramer equilibrium model to include larger clusters, relying on Helmholtz free energy differences derived from Monte Carlo simulations. The model is validated against the pressure/temperature measurements of Laksmono et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 5855 (2011)] for dilute methanol–nitrogen mixtures expanding in a supersonic flow prior to the appearance of liquid droplets. These data are well fit when the maximum cluster size imax is 6–12. The extended equilibrium model is then used to analyze the current data. On the addition of small amounts of water, heat release prior to particle formation is essentially unchanged from that for pure methanol, but liquid formation proceeds at much higher temperatures. Once water comprises more than ∼24 mol % of the condensable vapor, droplet formation begins at temperatures too high for heat release from subcritical cluster formation to perturb the flow. Comparing the experimental results to binary nucleation theory is challenged by the need to extrapolate data to the subcooled region and by the inapplicability of explicit cluster models that require a minimum of 12 molecules in the critical cluster.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Sun
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
| | - Gerald Wilemski
- Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA
| | - Barbara N. Hale
- Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA
| | - Barbara E. Wyslouzil
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
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4
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Celný D, Klíma M, Kolafa J. Molecular Dynamics of Heterogeneous Systems on GPUs and Their Application to Nucleation in Gas Expanding to a Vacuum. J Chem Theory Comput 2021; 17:7397-7405. [PMID: 34797064 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.1c00736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Expansion of water vapor through a small orifice to a vacuum produces liquid or frozen clusters which in the experiment serve as model particles for atmospheric aerosols. Yet, there are controversies about the shape of these clusters, suggesting that the nucleation process is not fully understood. Such questions can be answered by molecular dynamics simulations; however, they require microsecond-scale runs with thousands of molecules and accurate energy conservation. The available highly parallel codes typically utilize domain decomposition and are inefficient for heterogeneous systems as clusters in a dilute gas. In this work, we present an implementation of molecular dynamics on graphics processing units based on the Verlet list and apply it to several systems for which experimental data are available. We reproduce sufficiently sized clusters but not the experimentally observed clusters of irregular shape.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Celný
- Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic.,Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Praha 6, Czech Republic.,Department of Thermodynamics, Institute of Thermomechanics of the CAS, v. v. i. Dolejškova 1402/5 182 00 Prague 8 Czech Republic
| | - Martin Klíma
- Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Praha 6, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Kolafa
- Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Praha 6, Czech Republic
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Sun T, Ben-Amotz D, Wyslouzil BE. The freezing behavior of aqueous n-alcohol nanodroplets. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:9991-10005. [PMID: 33870962 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp06131j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We generate water-rich aerosols containing 1-propanol and 1-pentanol in a supersonic nozzle to study the effects of these solutes on the freezing behavior of water. Condensation and freezing are characterized by two complementary techniques, pressure trace measurements and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. When 1-pentanol and 1-propanol are present, condensation occurs at higher temperatures because particle formation from the vapor phase is enhanced by the decrease in interfacial free energy of mixed aqueous-alcohol critical clusters relative to those of pure water. FTIR results suggest that when ∼6 nm radius droplets freeze, the tetrahedral structure of the ice is well preserved up to an overall alcohol mole fraction of 0.031 for 1-propanol and 0.043 for 1-pentanol. In this concentration range, the ice nucleation temperature decreases continuously with increasing 1-propanol concentration, whereas the onset of freezing is not significantly perturbed by 1-pentanol up to a mole fraction of 0.03. Furthermore, once freezing starts the ice nucleation rates in the aqueous-alcohol droplets are very close to those for pure water. In contrast, at the highest mole fractions of either alcohol it is not clear whether droplets freeze to form crystalline ice since the final state of the particles cannot be adequately characterized with the available experimental techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Sun
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
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Aasen A, Reguera D, Wilhelmsen Ø. Curvature Corrections Remove the Inconsistencies of Binary Classical Nucleation Theory. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 124:045701. [PMID: 32058783 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.124.045701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Revised: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The study of nucleation in fluid mixtures exposes challenges beyond those of pure systems. A striking example is homogeneous condensation in highly surface-active water-alcohol mixtures, where classical nucleation theory yields an unphysical, negative number of water molecules in the critical embryo. This flaw has rendered multicomponent nucleation theory useless for many industrial and scientific applications. Here, we show that this inconsistency is removed by properly incorporating the curvature dependence of the surface tension of the mixture into classical nucleation theory for multicomponent systems. The Gibbs adsorption equation is used to explain the origin of the inconsistency by linking the molecules adsorbed at the interface to the curvature corrections of the surface tension. The Tolman length and rigidity constant are determined for several water-alcohol mixtures and used to show that the corrected theory is free of physical inconsistencies and provides accurate predictions of the nucleation rates. In particular, for the ethanol-water and propanol-water mixtures, the average error in the predicted nucleation rates is reduced from 11-15 orders of magnitude to below 1.5. The curvature-corrected nucleation theory opens the door to reliable predictions of nucleation rates in multicomponent systems, which are crucial for applications ranging from atmospheric science to research on volcanos.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ailo Aasen
- Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
- SINTEF Energy Research, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway
| | - David Reguera
- Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028-Barcelona, Spain
- University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Øivind Wilhelmsen
- Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
- SINTEF Energy Research, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway
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Krohn J, Lippe M, Li C, Signorell R. Carbon dioxide and propane nucleation: the emergence of a nucleation barrier. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2020; 22:15986-15998. [PMID: 32632423 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp01771j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We investigate homogeneous gas-phase nucleation of CO2 and C3H8 in the uniform postnozzle flow of Laval expansions in the temperature range of 31.2 K to 62.9 K and 32.0 K to 42.1 K, respectively. Time-dependent cluster size distributions are recorded with mass spectrometry after single-photon ionization with vacuum ultraviolet light. Net monomer-cluster forward rate constants and experimental nucleation rates J are retrieved from the time-dependent cluster size distributions. The comparison of experimental enhancement factors derived from these net forward rates with calculated enhancement factors provides an indication for the transition from barrier-limited to barrierless nucleation. Our data suggest such a transition for CO2, but not for C3H8. The values of J lie in the range from 9 × 1014 cm-3 s-1 to 6 × 1015 cm-3 s-1. For CO2, the comparison of J with a modeled nucleation rate JQM based on quantum chemical calculations of the free energy barrier also hints at a transition from barrierless condensation to barrier-limited nucleation. Furthermore, we address the influence of the carrier gas pressure on the nucleation rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Krohn
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Martina Lippe
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Chenxi Li
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Ruth Signorell
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
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Fárník M, Lengyel J. Mass spectrometry of aerosol particle analogues in molecular beam experiments. MASS SPECTROMETRY REVIEWS 2018; 37:630-651. [PMID: 29178389 DOI: 10.1002/mas.21554] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2017] [Accepted: 10/25/2017] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Nanometer-size particles such as ultrafine aerosol particles, ice nanoparticles, water nanodroplets, etc, play an important, however, not yet fully understood role in the atmospheric chemistry and physics. These species are often composed of water with admixture of other atmospherically relevant molecules. To mimic and investigate such particles in laboratory experiments, mixed water clusters with atmospherically relevant molecules can be generated in molecular beams and studied by various mass spectrometric methods. The present review demonstrates that such experiments can provide unprecedented details of reaction mechanisms, and detailed insight into the photon-, electron-, and ion-induced processes relevant to the atmospheric chemistry. After a brief outline of the molecular beam preparation, cluster properties, and ionization methods, we focus on the mixed clusters with various atmospheric molecules, such as hydrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid clusters, Nx Oy and halogen-containing molecules with water. A special attention is paid to their reactivity and solvent effects of water molecules on the observed processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Fárník
- J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jozef Lengyel
- J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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9
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Ferreiro JJ, Chakrabarty S, Schläppi B, Signorell R. Observation of propane cluster size distributions during nucleation and growth in a Laval expansion. J Chem Phys 2016; 145:211907. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4960050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jorge J. Ferreiro
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Satrajit Chakrabarty
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Bernhard Schläppi
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Ruth Signorell
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
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10
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Wyslouzil BE, Wölk J. Overview: Homogeneous nucleation from the vapor phase—The experimental science. J Chem Phys 2016; 145:211702. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4962283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Barbara E. Wyslouzil
- William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
| | - Judith Wölk
- Department of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Universität zu Köln, Luxemburger Str. 116, 50939 Köln, Germany
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Bruot N, Caupin F. Curvature Dependence of the Liquid-Vapor Surface Tension beyond the Tolman Approximation. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2016; 116:056102. [PMID: 26894721 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.116.056102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Surface tension is a macroscopic manifestation of the cohesion of matter, and its value σ_{∞} is readily measured for a flat liquid-vapor interface. For interfaces with a small radius of curvature R, the surface tension might differ from σ_{∞}. The Tolman equation, σ(R)=σ_{∞}/(1+2δ/R), with δ a constant length, is commonly used to describe nanoscale phenomena such as nucleation. Here we report experiments on nucleation of bubbles in ethanol and n-heptane, and their analysis in combination with their counterparts for the nucleation of droplets in supersaturated vapors, and with water data. We show that neither a constant surface tension nor the Tolman equation can consistently describe the data. We also investigate a model including 1/R and 1/R^{2} terms in σ(R). We describe a general procedure to obtain the coefficients of these terms from detailed nucleation experiments. This work explains the conflicting values obtained for the Tolman length in previous analyses, and suggests directions for future work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Bruot
- Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, Institut Universitaire de France, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France
| | - Frédéric Caupin
- Institut Lumière Matière, UMR5306 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1-CNRS, Université de Lyon, Institut Universitaire de France, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France
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12
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Zhou S. Electrostatic potential of mean force between two curved surfaces in the presence of counterion connectivity. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2015; 92:052317. [PMID: 26651705 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.92.052317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate effects of counterion connectivity (i.e., association of the counterions into a chain molecule) on the electrostatic potential of mean force (EPMF) between two similarly charged cylinder rods in a primitive model electrolyte solution by solving a classical density functional theory. The main findings include the following: (i) The counterion connectivity helps in inducing a like-charge-attractionlike (LCA-like) phenomenology even in a monovalent counterion solution wherein the LCA-like observation generally does not occur without the counterion connectivity. (ii) For divalent counterion solutions, the counterion connectivity can reinforce or weaken the LCA-like observation depending on the chain length N, and simply increases the equilibrium nearest surface separation of the rods corresponding to the minimum EPMF to nearly three times the counterion site diameter, whether N is large or small. (iii) If N is large enough, the LCA-like strength tends to be negatively correlated with the electrolyte concentration c over the entire range of the rod surface charge magnitude |σ*| considered; whereas if N drops, the correlation tends to become positive with decrease of the |σ*| value, and particularly for modest |σ*| values, the correlation relationship exhibits an extreme value phenomenon. (iv) In the case of a 1:1 electrolyte, the EPMF effects of the diameters of counterion and coion sites are similar in both situations with and without the counterion connectivity. All of these findings can be explained self-consistently by a recently proposed hydrogen-bonding style mechanism reinforced by one additional concept: flexibility of the counterion chain and the factors affecting it, like N and counterion site valence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiqi Zhou
- School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China
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