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Published on: June 20, 2016
Comparing Sprayed Water Microdroplets with Several Ionization Methods on the Capability of Ionizing Ambient Air
Bowen Li1, Xufeng Gao1, Dong Xing1
1College of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Chemical Power Sources, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Frontiers Science Centre for New Organic Matter, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
None:
Microdroplet chemistry has been utilized in different fields due to a plethora of unique properties such as the existence of a high electric field up to 109 V/m at the surface of the microdroplets or between two oppositely charged microdroplets. Such a high field endows microdroplets with the ability of ionizing ambient air. In this study, we compare the ionization capability of microdroplets with several other ionization methods, including photoionization (vacuum ultraviolet photons, X-ray), nuclear decay (α-ray from 241Am), and discharge ionization (piezoelectric discharge, dielectric barrier discharge, and arc discharge) using mass spectrometry to detect ionic products. The mass spectra show striking similarity. These results reveal the high ionization capability of water microdroplets and rationalize the observation of various radical and ion related reactions initiated by water microdroplets. The high ionizing nature of water microdroplets also sheds light on the chemistry of the origin of life.
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