Contribution of Atomic force Microscopy to particle resuspension studies

GÉLAIN T; GRISOLIA C; BENITO, J. G.; PLUCHERY O; PEILLON S; GENSDARMES F

París

Congreso; CFA2020 - 33rd French Aerosol Congress; 2020

This work presents direct measurements of adhesion forces between spherical tungsten (W) particles and a glass surface using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Four particle sizes (between 4 μm and 10 μm radius) were used for this study. These particles were grafted to tipless AFM CP-FM (Colloidal Probe Force Modulation) cantilevers. The average roughness of the glass surface was also determined by AFM. The results obtained are in agreement with the model of Rabinovich etal. based on van der Waals forces and integrating roughness parameters of the surfaces in contact. This model and the adhesion force distributions obtained by AFM were then used in a Monte Carlo numerical code to calculate the resuspension fractions of a tungsten powder composed of spherical particles deposited on a glass slide and exposed to airflow. The results show a good agreement between the resuspension experiments and the numerical model when it integrates the adhesion forces measured by AFM.