Electrosprayed Heavy Ion and Nanodrop Beams for Surface Engineering and Electrical Propulsion
Abstract
In this project we have investigated the generation, interaction and energetic impact of electrosprayed nanodroplets and molecular ions, covering continuously the projectile size range from 1 nm up to hundreds of nm. The 1-20 nm size range is of great interest to achieve variable specific impulse (Isp) from 100 s to >1000 s in drop-based electrical propulsion, while pure molecular ion emission enables higher Isp. The resulting knowledge is directly applicable to electrospray thrusters/electric propulsion), and will lead to new opportunities in other fields such as MEMS and IC fabrication. The specific research problems tackled during this projects and accomplishments include: the development of a basic electrospray beam model, and measurements of the spreading of the beam at varying temperature; the experimental characterization and typical thruster surfaces bombarded by electrosprayed nanodroplets, and a molecular dynamics study of the physics of nanodroplet impact; the extension of the minimum size of electrosprayed nanodroplets, and the exploration of energetic propellants for propulsion and sputtering; and molecular dynamics simulations of the fragmentation and emission of ions from ionic liquids.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 10, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA611186
Entities
People
- Manuel Gamero-Castaño
Organizations
- University of California, Irvine