IGC synthesis of tin nanophase particles Part I: Study on convection gas currents in IGC chamber

Abstract

In order to optimise process variables during the synthesis of tin nanophase particles in an inert gas condensation (IGC) chamber, a two-dimensional finite difference method (FDM) simulation on convection gas currents is proposed and calculated for various boundary conditions. The convection gas velocity and temperature for the 95 x 105 positions in the chamber were calculated by simulation and compared with experimental results. In the FDM simulation, the governing equations consisted of continuity, momentum, and energy equations. The effects of convection gas pressure, evaporation temperature, position of the evaporation source, and chamber size on the formation of convection currents were investigated by the FDM simulation and experiments. It turned out that among various process variables, the convection gas pressure played the most important role in the formation of the convection gas current that gave rise to an impact on the shape and size of synthesised tin nanophase particles. PM/0977 Professor Huh (myhuh@korea.ac.kr) and Mr Kim are in the Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea. Dr Ahn is at the Nano Materials Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, Korea. Manuscript received 13 September 2001; accepted 20 February 2002. (C) 2002 IoM Commuications Ltd.