Nanoparticle charging in a twin Hewitt charger

A new unipolar charger for aerosol nanoparticles has been developed. In this twin Hewitt charger two corona discharge zones are connected by a charging zone where the nanoparticle aerosol flows. Ions move into the charging zone alternating from each corona discharging zone by means of a square-wave voltage. The operation parameters of the device have been experimentally investigated at standard conditions with the goal to optimize the extrinsic charging efficiency in NZ carrier gas. It has teen found that there exists an optimal length of the charging channel for each gas flow rate through the charger which minimizes losses of charged particles and at the same time having a sufficient large n(ion)t-product. Extrinsic charging efficiencies of some 30% for particles with a diameter of 10 nm are obtained.