It is now recognized that nanoscale particulate matter (PM) represents a substantial health hazard for our society, including PM from restaurant smoke. In this study, we explored the use of a transient pulsed plasma in conjunction with an applied DC bias to treat oil aerosols that closely resemble restaurant (i.e., charbroiler) smoke emissions. For polyaromatic olefin PAO-4 and soybean oil, we found that a three-order-of-magnitude reduction in particulates (i.e., 99.9% remediation) could be achieved with this system. Here, the plasma discharge was produced in a 4-in.-diameter cylindrical reactor with a 5–10 ns high voltage (30 kV) pulse generator together with applied DC bias voltages up to 10 kV. The distribution of nanoparticle sizes was measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) with diameter centered around 225 nm. Here, the main mechanism of remediation occurs in a two-step process in which the oil nanoparticles are first ionized by the free electrons and free radicals in the plasma and then the charged particles are swept out to the sidewalls of the reactor by the applied DC potential. We believe this general approach opens up new degrees of freedom in the design of electrostatic oil aerosol pollution control devices.

现在已经认识到，纳米级颗粒物（PM）对我们的社会构成了重大的健康危害，包括餐厅烟尘中的PM。在这项研究中，我们探索了使用瞬态脉冲等离子体结合施加的DC偏压来治疗与餐厅（即炭火炉）烟雾排放极为相似的油雾剂。对于聚芳族烯烃PAO-4和豆油，我们发现使用该系统可以实现颗粒物三级数量级的降低（即99.9％的修复）。在这里，等离子放电是在直径为4英寸的圆柱形反应器中产生的，该反应器带有5-10  ns高压（30 kV）脉冲发生器，并施加了高达10的直流偏置电压 千伏。使用直径在225nm 附近的扫描迁移率粒度仪（SMPS）测量纳米粒度的分布。在此，修复的主要机理发生在两步过程中，其中油纳米颗粒首先被等离子体中的自由电子和自由基电离，然后带电的颗粒被施加的直流电扫出反应器的侧壁潜在。我们相信这种通用方法为静电油雾剂污染控制设备的设计开辟了新的自由度。