References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-10-9773-2010

Sub-10 nm particle growth by vapor condensation – effects of vapor molecule size and particle thermal speed

Nieminen

¹ Lehtinen

K. E. J.

² Kulmala

Department of Physics, P.O. Box 64, 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland

Finnish Meteorological Institute, Kuopio Unit, and University of Kuopio, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland

18 10 2010

10 20 9773 9779

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The growth of freshly formed nanoparticles has been investigated. A new analytical expression based on a recently developed exact solution for the condensational growth rate has been derived. Based on the new growth rate, a new approximate but accurate analytical expression for growth time has been derived. The expression includes transition regime effects on growth, molecule size effects on the collision cross section and particle thermal speed effects on the relative collisional speeds – the last two of which are typically neglected, but may have significant effects when dealing with the growth of freshly nucleated particles. To demonstrate the use of the derived expressions, the contribution of sulphuric acid and organic compounds on sub 3 nm and sub 10 nm particle growth rates has been studied. For sulphuric acid also the effect of hydration as function of relative humidity has been taken into account. According to the new expression the sulphuric acid concentration needed for 1 nm/h growth in sub 3 nm range is ca. 1.5×10<sup>7</sup> cm<sup>−3</sup>, which is a factor of 1.5 smaller than values typically used in aerosol physics based on standard model in kinetic regime.

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