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

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.