The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in the atmosphere of Titan
The formation of aerosols in the atmosphere of Titan is based extensively onion-neutral chemistry and physical condensation processes. Herein it is shown that the formation of aerosols may also occur through an alternative pathway that involves the physical aggregation of negatively charged particle...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/ |
| _version_ | 1848795893178826752 |
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| author | Lindgren, Eric B. Stamm, Benjamin Chan, Ho-Kei Maday, Yvon Stace, Anthony J. Besley, Elena |
| author_facet | Lindgren, Eric B. Stamm, Benjamin Chan, Ho-Kei Maday, Yvon Stace, Anthony J. Besley, Elena |
| author_sort | Lindgren, Eric B. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The formation of aerosols in the atmosphere of Titan is based extensively onion-neutral chemistry and physical condensation processes. Herein it is shown that the formation of aerosols may also occur through an alternative pathway that involves the physical aggregation of negatively charged particles, which are known to be abundant in the satellite's atmosphere. It is shown that, given the right circumstances, like-charged particles with a dielectric constant characteristic of nitrated hydrocarbons have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome any repulsive electrostatic barrier that separates them and can subsequently experience an attractive interaction at very short separation. Aerosol growth can then unfold through a charge scavenging process, whereby nitrated aggregates preferentially grow by assimilating smaller like-charged particles. Since hydrocarbon aerosols have much lower dielectric constants, it is shown that a similar mechanism involving hydrocarbon particles will not be as efficient. As a consequence of this proposed growth mechanism, it is suggested that the lower atmosphere of Titan will be enriched in nitrogen-containing aerosols. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:39:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-39693 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:39:19Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-396932020-05-08T10:00:10Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/ The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in the atmosphere of Titan Lindgren, Eric B. Stamm, Benjamin Chan, Ho-Kei Maday, Yvon Stace, Anthony J. Besley, Elena The formation of aerosols in the atmosphere of Titan is based extensively onion-neutral chemistry and physical condensation processes. Herein it is shown that the formation of aerosols may also occur through an alternative pathway that involves the physical aggregation of negatively charged particles, which are known to be abundant in the satellite's atmosphere. It is shown that, given the right circumstances, like-charged particles with a dielectric constant characteristic of nitrated hydrocarbons have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome any repulsive electrostatic barrier that separates them and can subsequently experience an attractive interaction at very short separation. Aerosol growth can then unfold through a charge scavenging process, whereby nitrated aggregates preferentially grow by assimilating smaller like-charged particles. Since hydrocarbon aerosols have much lower dielectric constants, it is shown that a similar mechanism involving hydrocarbon particles will not be as efficient. As a consequence of this proposed growth mechanism, it is suggested that the lower atmosphere of Titan will be enriched in nitrogen-containing aerosols. Elsevier 2016-12-10 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/1/Icarus2016_ePrint.pdf Lindgren, Eric B., Stamm, Benjamin, Chan, Ho-Kei, Maday, Yvon, Stace, Anthony J. and Besley, Elena (2016) The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in the atmosphere of Titan. Icarus . ISSN 0019-1035 (In Press) Titan; Aerosol; Like Charge Attraction; Dielectric Particles; Atmosphere http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103516302731 doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.013 doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.013 |
| spellingShingle | Titan; Aerosol; Like Charge Attraction; Dielectric Particles; Atmosphere Lindgren, Eric B. Stamm, Benjamin Chan, Ho-Kei Maday, Yvon Stace, Anthony J. Besley, Elena The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in the atmosphere of Titan |
| title | The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of Titan |
| title_full | The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of Titan |
| title_fullStr | The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of Titan |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of Titan |
| title_short | The effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of Titan |
| title_sort | effect of like-charge attraction on aerosol growth in
the atmosphere of titan |
| topic | Titan; Aerosol; Like Charge Attraction; Dielectric Particles; Atmosphere |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39693/ |