Investigation of production mechanism of ultrafine particles in ERC (evaporation and rapid condensation) method

For the purpose of the production of a large amount of isolated ultrafine particles (UFP), a new process had been developed by means of a rapid vapor condensation technique named ERC method. In this study, the investigation on the production mechanism of particles in the ERC method was carried out through the comparison with a conventional gas evaporation (CGE) method. Then, it was found that two effects on the production mechanism, which were represented as the vapor suction and the vapor rapid cooling, existed in the ERC method. And, the cooling effect of liquid nitrogen used for quenching of metal vapor on the generated UFP was also examined by X-ray diffraction analysis.