Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 10 1 2010 10.5194/acpd-10-1693-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/1693/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/1693/2010/acpd-10-1693-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/1693/2010/acpd-10-1693-2010.pdf 1693 1717 2010-01-21 On condensational growth of clusters and nanoparticles in sub-10 nm size range T. Nieminen tuomo.nieminen@helsinki.fi K. E. J. Lehtinen M. Kulmala Department of Physics, P.O. Box 64, 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute, Kuopio Unit, and University of Kuopio, Department of Physics, P.O. Box 1627, 70211 Kuopio, Finland The growth of freshly formed nanoparticles has been investigated. A new analytical expression based on a recently developed exact solution for the condensational growth rate has been derived. Based on the new growth rate, a new approximate but accurate analytical expression for growth time has been derived. The expression includes transition regime effects on growth, molecule size effects on the collision cross section and particle mobility effects on the relative collisional speeds – the last two of which are typically neglected, but may have significant effects when dealing with the growth of freshly nucleated particles. To demonstrate the use of the derived expressions, the contribution of sulphuric acid and organic compounds on sub 3 nm and sub 10 nm particle growth rates has been studied. For sulphuric acid also the effect of hydration as function of relative humidity has been taken into account. According to the new expression the needed sulphuric acid concentration for 1 nm/h growth in sub 3 nm range is ca. 7×10₆ cm^−3, which is a factor of two smaller than values typically used in aerosol physics based on standard model in kinetic regime. 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