Cross-sections for neutral atoms and molecules collisions with charged spherical nanoparticle

TL;DR

This paper calculates collision cross sections between neutral atoms/molecules and charged nanoparticles, providing accurate analytical formulas within a 15% error margin for weakly ionized plasma conditions.

Contribution

It introduces simple analytical formulas for collision cross sections and heat fluxes that are accurate within 15%, applicable across a broad range of nanoparticle and plasma parameters.

Findings

OLM approximation error does not exceed 15%.

Analytical formulas are valid for all reasonable nanoparticle and plasma parameters.

The study enhances understanding of atom/molecule collisions with charged nanoparticles.

Abstract

The paper presents cross sections for collisions of neutral atoms/molecules with a charged nanoparticle, which is the source of the dipole potential. The accuracy of the orbital limited motion (OLM) approximation is estimated. It is shown that simple analytical formulas for the atoms/molecules and heat fluxes, obtained in the OLM approximation, give an error of not more than 15%, and are applicable in all reasonable range of nanoparticles and weakly ionized plasma parameters.