Avadhani Veena S, Harper Conner C, Miller Zachary M, Williams Evan R
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1460, United States.
J Am Chem Soc. 2025 Jun 4;147(22):18853-18863. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5c02845. Epub 2025 May 24.
Fission of highly charged micrometer-sized and larger droplets has been investigated using optical methods, but until recently, direct measurements of spontaneous fission of submicrometer droplets have not been possible. Charge detection mass spectrometry is used to track the mass, charge, and energy per charge of aqueous nanodrops that undergo evaporative water loss while they are trapped for up to 4 s. 154 of the 846 trapped nanodrops (18.2%) with charges ranging from 44 to 158% of the Rayleigh limit underwent fission. Although these spontaneous fission processes are highly heterogeneous, four distinct fission pathways that occur over times ranging from a few ms to 100s of ms with ejection of just a few to hundreds of progeny droplets were identified. One is a "continuous" pathway in which many small progeny droplets with progressively less charge are sequentially emitted over the course of ∼25 to 150 ms. Prompt and sequential prompt pathways in which one or a limited number of progeny droplets carry away a significant fraction of the precursor charge are the most common. "Prefission" events in which emission of just a few charges prior to a larger prompt fission event occur for some nanodrops charged above the Rayleigh limit, and these events appear to have similarities to "foreshocks" that often occur shortly prior to major earthquakes.
已经使用光学方法研究了高电荷微米级及更大液滴的裂变,但直到最近,对亚微米级液滴的自发裂变进行直接测量仍是不可能的。电荷检测质谱法用于跟踪被困长达4秒的水性纳米液滴在经历蒸发失水时的质量、电荷和每电荷能量。在846个被困纳米液滴中,有154个(18.2%)发生了裂变,其电荷范围为瑞利极限的44%至158%。尽管这些自发裂变过程高度不均匀,但确定了四种不同的裂变途径,这些途径发生的时间范围从几毫秒到数百毫秒,仅喷出少数到数百个后代液滴。一种是“连续”途径,在约25至150毫秒的过程中,许多电荷逐渐减少的小后代液滴依次发射。最常见的是即时和连续即时途径,其中一个或有限数量的后代液滴带走了大部分前体电荷。对于一些电荷高于瑞利极限的纳米液滴,在较大的即时裂变事件之前会发生仅发射少量电荷的“预裂变”事件,这些事件似乎与大地震前不久经常发生的“前震”有相似之处。