Sizing of Molybdenum Nanoparticles Using Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Incandescence

Aerosolized metal nanoparticles have numerous important applications in materials science, but their functionality depends strongly on their size. Very recently, time-resolved laser-induced incandescence (TiRe-LII) has been investigated as a technique to size aerosolized metal nanoparticles, but this procedure requires an accurate model of the heat transfer through which laser-energized particles re-equilibrate with the bath gas. This paper presents a model for laser-energized molybdenum nanoparticles, which is then applied to analyze experimental TiRe-LII measurements made on molybdenum nanoparticles formed by photolysis of Mo(CO)₆ in helium, argon, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. While it is possible to estimate the size distribution width, recovering nanoparticle sizes from TiRe-LII data requires independent knowledge of the thermal accommodation coefficient.