Thermophoresis of nanoparticles in the transition regime

Abstract

The thermophoresis of nanoparticles suspended in gas is investigated in the transition regime by molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that there exists significant discrepancy between the simulation results and the theoretical predictions for the thermophoretic force, which is attributed to the adsorption of gas molecules on nanoparticles and the gas–particle non-rigid body collisions. By using the effective particle radius, the simulation results and Talbot et al.'s equation could agree with each other in the transition regime. In addition, the effect of the finite system size of the molecular dynamics simulations is non-negligible, and the simulation results modified by effective particle radius can coincide with Phillips' equation quite well. Therefore, for particles of a few nanometers, the non-rigid body collision effect and the adsorption of gas molecules and the effective radius of the nanoparticle under strong gas–particle coupling should be taken into account in the theoretical model. The investigation presented in this paper provides guidance for the application of nanoparticles in aerosol science.