Atmospheric Pressure low temperature plasma development and use for nanoparticle charging and related applications

大气空气中纳米颗粒物的测量和监测正在从一个研究兴趣过渡到一个立法要求，欧洲指令在汽车行业。颗粒尺寸和数量浓度的不确定性的主要组成部分是由于纳米颗粒的多次充电。该项目将通过用低温大气等离子体电离源取代目前的电离源（X射线和放射性）来解决多次充电问题，低温大气等离子体电离源目前用于分析质谱法，以单独充电目标分析物。低温大气压等离子体作为活性离子、原子和分子物种的有效来源受到相当大的关注。它们已经有广泛的用途，例如伤口愈合、消毒、表面改性、聚合和表面分析。这个博士项目是关于一个大气压低温等离子体源的设计，开发和表征，该等离子体源应该能够单独充电气溶胶中的纳米粒子。该博士学位将联合收割机结合大气低温等离子体科学与空气中纳米颗粒测量领域，并将涉及在利物浦大学（UoL）和国家物理实验室（NPL）工作。学生将主要在UoL工作，设计，开发和构建适当的原型源，但在博士课程期间，将需要NPL进行几次研究访问，以在专业仪器上安装，测试和验证这些原型。

Atmospheric airborne nanoparticulate measurement and monitoring is transitioning from a research interest to a legislatory requirement, with European Directives in the vehicle industry. A major component in the uncertainty in particle size and number concentration is due to the multiple charging of nanoparticles. This project will address multiple charging by replacing the current ionisation sources (X-ray and radioactive) with a low-temperature atmospheric plasma ionisation source, which are currently used in analytical mass spectrometry to singly charge target analytes. Low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas are receiving considerable interest as efficient sources of reactive ionic, atomic and molecular species. They already have a wide range of uses, for example, wound healing, sterilisation, surface modification, polymerisation and surface analysis. This PhD project is concerned with the design, development and characterisation of an atmospheric pressure low-temperature plasma source which should be able to singly charge nanoparticles in an aerosol. This PhD will combine the fields of atmospheric low-temperature plasma science with that of airborne nanoparticle measurement and will involve working at both the University of Liverpool (UoL) and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The student will work mainly at UoL to design, develop and build an appropriate prototype sources, but several research visits over the course of the PhD will be required to NPL to fit, test and characterise these prototypes on specialised instrumentation.