| Abstract: | The van der Waals interaction energy has been computed for a large number of silver and water particle pairs in the range of 1 to 15 nm radius by first calculating the exact, retarded Hamaker factor for semi-infinite bodies and then applying a geometric correction for sphericity. The enhancement of particle collision rates has been deduced from these calculations. These values for the collisional enhancement were used in a direct numerical simulation of the coagulation of silver and water aerosols. Despite the size dependence of the van der Waals enhancement factors, the aerosol size distributions quickly attained nearly self-preserving forms. |
