Characterization of a copper spark discharge plasma in argon atmosphere used for nanoparticle generation

<!-- START_ABSTRACT --> <p> Spark discharge nanoparticle generation is a dynamically developing application of discharge plasmas. In the present study a spark plasma used for nanoparticle generation is characterized by means of spatially and temporally resolved optical emission spectroscopy (OES) supplemented by fast imaging. The data acquired during the generation of copper nanoparticles in argon ambient is used to describe the spatial and temporal evolution of the species in the spark gap and to derive plasma parameters such as excitation temperature and electron concentration on one hand, and the concentration of the Cu species eroded by a single spark on the other. It is shown that temporally and spatially resolved OES together with a simple equilibrium model are efficient tools to estimate the characteristics of the spark discharge plasma that typically exists in spark discharge nanoparticle generators. </p> <!-- END_ABSTRACT --> <!-- START_TEMPLATE --> <ul> <li> Source: </li> <li> Tags: </li> </ul> <!-- END_TEMPLATE -->