Mitigation of fine hydrophobic liquid aerosols by polydispersed uncharged and charged water droplets

TL;DR

This study explores how uncharged and charged water droplets can effectively scavenge fine hydrophobic liquid aerosols, using experimental and theoretical methods to improve understanding of aerosol removal from the atmosphere.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and theoretical approach to analyze the scavenging of fine hydrophobic aerosols by water droplets, including effects of charge and droplet size.

Findings

Uncharged droplets effectively capture aerosols across a range of sizes.

Charging droplets enhances scavenging efficiency.

High-speed imaging reveals droplet-aerosol interactions.

Abstract

One of the harmful contaminants in the atmosphere, which negatively affects the well-being of both humans and animals, is the suspended respirable particles. The most difficult aspect of the study is now removing these fine respirable particles from the atmosphere. This study investigates the scavenging phenomenon of fine hydrophobic liquid aerosols (10 nm to 1050 nm) by uncharged and charged droplets in a self-made scaled test rig. In this study, a hollow cone nozzle with a 1 mm orifice diameter uses tap water to disperse liquid into fine droplets. The paraffin oil and Di-Ethyl-Hexyl-Sebacat (DEHS) solution are aerosolized to be scavenged by water droplets. This research employs a high-speed imaging technique and theoretical modeling approach to measure the size distribution and charge acquired by water droplets respectively. The findings of this study show that uncharged droplets dispersed