Numerical simulation of silica nanoparticles production in an RF plasma reactor: Effect of quench

This present work summarises our results concerning the modelling of silica nanoparticles formation, in a radio frequency (RF) plasma reactor. It is shown that the use of quench injection plays an important role in the final size and structure of the produced particles. The present model has been developed with the use of the computational fluid dynamics software (CFD), Fluent-FPM. Simulation results are found to be in agreement with the experimental findings for this process. This simplified modelling approach is used here to study the relationship between the operating parameters effect and the properties of the end products at the laboratory scale.