Experimental Study of Thermodiffusiophoresis By Use of a Thermal Diffusion Cloud Chamber

Thermodiffusiophoresis and growth of dioctylphthalate droplets formed by nucleation in a thermal diffusion cloud chamber were studied with helium, argon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and methane as inert carrier gases. The experiments were carried out in a total pressure range of 1–50 kPa. Distributions of droplets in the chamber, as obtained from photographs of their tracks in a flat vertical laser beam, were compared with predictions by the theory developed by Annis and Mason in 1975. At higher pressures of inert gases the agreement with the theory is as expected. At lower pressures the theory predicts higher thermodiffusiophoretic effects than observed in experiments.