Diagnostic studies on desolvated aerosols from ultrasonic nebulizers

Abstract Dual-beam, light-scattering interferometry was used for simultaneous measurements of particle-size and particle-velocity distributions, size-velocity correlation, particle number density, and volume flux and span of desolvated aerosols. A commercial ultrasonic nebulizer (USN) and a low-cost, humidifier-based USN were used to nebulize pure water, or aqueous solutions containing H 2 SO 4 , HNO 3 , or NaCl. In general, Sauter mean diameter, velocity of droplets, and volume flux of desolvated aerosol were larger when Ar was used as the injector gas instead of He. Sauter mean diameter increased with acid concentration, but it was independent of salt concentration. The velocity of desolvated droplets did not change with analyte concentration or the temperature of the heating tube. Pulsations and clustering of particles were observed for the first time by time-resolved measurements on the aerosol before injection into an inductively coupled plasma. In certain cases, the local number density of the desolvated particles within the clusters and the diameter of the dry particles varied by a factor of ten on a millisecond time scale. The implications of these observations in plasma spectrochemical measurements are discussed.