Enhanced persistence of fog under illumination for carbon nanotube fog condensation nuclei

Black carbon (BC) emissions have increased over South Asia and more persistent winter fogs are common during last decade. However, a physical mechanism connecting these two is still unknown. A significant fraction of BC is known to be in the form of carbon-nanotube (CNT). We have investigated the effects of two different sets of fog condensation nuclei, viz., inorganic salts (sodium chloride and ammonium sulphate) and BC (graphite and CNT) on the dissipation of chamber generated fog under dark and halogen lamp illuminated conditions at a controlled temperature, relative humidity, and fog condensation nuclei distribution. We found that, for inorganic salts, fog dissipates at a faster rate under illumination than in dark conditions showing similar trends for both sodium chloride and ammonium chloride. On the contrary, fog is found to be more persistent, for illuminated conditions, in the case of BC. Moreover, fog persistence is found to be more than twice for CNT compared to graphite in illuminated conditions. CNT is known to be an extremely effective absorber of light which leads to microscopic heating and subsequent evaporation which inhibits droplet growth. Small droplets have large residence time leading to longer fog persistence. This hitherto unknown mechanism may be responsible for persistent fog in India during last decade. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4736557]