Numerical investigation on the growth process and size distribution of nanoparticles obtained through electrical explosion of aluminum wire

Numerical investigations on the formation process and the final size distribution of nanoparticles during electrical explosion of Al wire are carried out. Firstly, the formation of the atomic vapor clusters is investigated. It indicates that the Al wire does not reach its atomization conditions. The size of the atomic vapor clusters is obtained, and it increases with the temperature at explosion. Then the growth process of Al nanoparticles from the formed atomic vapor clusters is modeled and the size distribution is predicted. The size distribution at different temperatures indicates that the growth process of Al nanoparticles becomes inactive gradually as the temperature decreases. The investigation of the size distribution under different cooling rates indicates that the bigger cooling rate is favorable for the formation of Al nanoparticles with smaller size dispersion and lower average dimension. The size distribution of Al nanoparticles obtained by the model is qualitatively consistent with the experimental data, which demonstrates the feasibility of this model.