Influence of external electric field on the coagulation of electrically charged particles

The effect of an external electric field on the coagulation of bipolar and unipolar charged particles was analyzed numerically by solving the coagulation equation for charged particles. The comparison shows that the coagulation rate of charged particles is increased significantly in the presence of an external electric field. For symmetrically charged particles, the external electric field does not change the symmetry of the initial charge distribution as the coagulation time increases. In addition, the particle number concentration decreases monotonically during coagulation regardless of the magnitude of the particle charge. For asymmetrically charged and unipolar charged particles, however, the particle number concentration does not decrease uniformly during coagulation.