Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Linear Multiplexed Electrospray Atomizers Micro-Machined from Metal and Polymers

    Authors

    B. Lojewski; W. W. Yang; H. X. Duan; C. Y. Xu;W. W. Deng

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Aerosol Sci. Technol.

    Keywords

    NANOELECTROSPRAY MASS-SPECTROMETRY; CONE-JET MODE; MONODISPERSE; DROPLETS; ELECTROHYDRODYNAMIC ATOMIZATION; ELECTROSTATIC SPRAY; DEPOSITION PATTERNS; EMITTER ARRAYS; SCALE-UP; MU-M; GENERATION; Engineering, Chemical; Engineering, Mechanical; Environmental Sciences; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

    Abstract

    Multiplexed electrospray is a promising aerosol generation technique to produce high throughput quasi-monodisperse droplets in the nanometer and micron size range. Here we report the design, fabrication, analysis, and performance of a linear electrospray (LINES) system. The fabrication of the nozzle array is based on a precision computer numerical control (CNC) micromachining platform with 1-micron resolution. This rapid prototyping approach offers the flexibility of creating devices from a wide range of materials including metals and polymers with packing densities on par with silicon microfabrication at 20 sources/cm for LINES devices and 460 sources/cm(2) for the two-dimensional array. The LINES device uses a slot extractor design to simplify alignment and enhance operation robustness. We also used dummy nozzles (posts without fluidic channels) to offset edge effect on electric field and improved droplet size uniformity. We derived the approximate spray expansion model from charge conservation and Gauss' law. We applied the line-of-charge approximation to establish scaling laws for prescribing operating conditions. The devices show excellent droplet size uniformity from source to source, with relative standard deviation (RSD) of primary droplets < 3%.

    Journal Title

    Aerosol Science and Technology

    Volume

    47

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    146

    Last Page

    152

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000325914200004

    ISSN

    0278-6826

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