In situ study of the mechanical properties of airborne haze particles

Particulate pollution has raised serious concerns regarding its potential impacts on human health in developing countries. However, much less attention has been paid to the threat of haze particles to machinery and industry. By employing a state-of-the-art in situ scanning electron microscope compre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ding, MingShuai, Han, WeiZhong, Li, Ju, Ma, Evan, Shan, ZhiWei
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Science China Press 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104943
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7841-8058
Description
Summary:Particulate pollution has raised serious concerns regarding its potential impacts on human health in developing countries. However, much less attention has been paid to the threat of haze particles to machinery and industry. By employing a state-of-the-art in situ scanning electron microscope compression testing technique, we demonstrate that iron-rich and fly ash haze particles, which account for nearly 70% of the total micron-sized spherical haze particles, are strong enough to generate abrasive damage to most engineering alloys, and therefore can generate significant scratch damage to moving contacting surfaces in high precision machineries. Our finding calls for preventive measures to protect against haze related threat.