Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06967-y

Aerodynamic diameter distribution of aerosols from plasma arc

cutting for steels at different cutting power levels
Min‑Ho Lee1 · Wonseok Yang1 · Nakkyu Chae1 · Sungyeol Choi1

Received: 2 October 2019 / Published online: 2 December 2019

© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2019

Abstract
Radiological aerosol generated from radio-activated metal cutting is a significant risk factor that must be considered for
radiological hazards on a worker. For minimizing the exposure of a worker, it is important to understand the distribution of
particle size and mass. This study measured the aerodynamic distribution of aerosols generated from the plasma arc cut-
ting on steel alloys by using an electric low pressure impactor. We compared the impact of plasma cutting conditions with
various plasma arc current (75, 90, 125 A) and cutting length (3, 6, 15 cm) on the aerodynamic distribution of aerosols. We
confirmed the higher plasma arc current, the more aerosol with a larger particle than 0.1 μm was produced. The optimal
current value of suppressing ultrafine dust generation was suggested through the analysis of kerf width and fine particle
fraction by increasing plasma arc current. The study of plasma arc current influence on aerosol generation could be helped
to potentially minimize worker’s exposure by carefully selecting the cutting conditions.

Keywords  Plasma cutting fume · Plasma arc current · Kerf width · Aerodynamic distribution · Fine particle

Introduction material up to 40 mm thickness of tube, pipe, and reactor

A plasma arc is commonly used for metal fabrication and
cutting process. Plasma cutting is a method of cutting metal
by generating hot plasma arc so that it can be applied to con-
ductive materials such as aluminum, mild steel, and stainless
steel [1, 2]. Despite the limitation that plasma cutting cannot
be used in non-conductive materials, plasma cutting is more
utilized, less energy consumption, and more mobile to carry
out work at various locations on the site than other cutting
processes such as oxy-fuel, laser, and water jet [3]. There-
fore, many plasma cutting applications have been performed
on thick mild steel or stainless-steel plates [2]. Because of
these advantages, plasma arc cutting has been selected as
one of the ways to cut large quantities of metal which gener-
ated from dismantling process of nuclear power plants [4–6].
There were some cases of using plasma arc as a tool for cut-
ting radio-activated metal components in decommissioning
nuclear facilities projects. A plasma arc was used for cutting
* Sungyeol Choi
sungyeolchoi@kaist.ac.kr
1
Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291
Daehak‑ro, Yuseong‑gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
vessel [7–9].
However, the plasma arc cutting generates a large num-
ber of fine and ultra-fine particles compared to other non-
thermal cutting processes [6]. Despite safeguards regula-
tions and respiratory protection equipment on workplace,
the aerosol from plasma cutting is still a serious problem
that threatens the health of the worker. Radiological aerosol
that occurs during the process of radio-activated metal cut-
ting can be an important risk factor that must be considered
for radiological hazards as well as for the harmful effects
of metal toxicity [10–12]. However, while aerosol studies
on existing welds are abundant [13–20], only few limited
studies on looking into the properties of plasma arc cutting
fume and health risks from exposure has been conducted [5,
21]. It is important to understand the correlation between
the operating parameters of plasma cutting and the charac-
teristics of fume, instead of simply applying the knowledge
learned from the welding fume.
The characteristics of aerosol generated by plasma cutting
are theoretically determined by the type of metal and the
operating parameters such as cutting speed, cutting length,
and plasma arc current. Bernard et al. [22] and Novick et al.
[23] analyzed the effect of plasma power on amount of
aerosol in the metal cutting process. However, the previous

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614
researches were not enough to judge the effect of the operat-
ing parameters of plasma cutting on characteristics of aero-
sol. In this study, we focused on the relationship between
plasma arc current and formation of aerosol in the perspec-
tive of safety for workers. The aerodynamic diameter distri-
butions of aerosol particles produced from plasma cutting
on different steel materials such as 304 alloy, 316 alloy, and
mild steel were measured at various power levels, 75, 90,
125 A, and cutting lengths, 3, 6, 15 cm. The real-time sam-
pling and in-situ characterization of aerosols were achieved
from 6 nm to 10 μm at 14 stages. In this study, we tried to
identify not only the generated total amount of aerosols, but
also the number and mass distribution of aerosols generated
from the plasma arc cutting according to the variation of cut-
ting length and arc current. By comparing both total amount
and aerodynamic distribution of aerosol, it showed that the
plasma arc current could induce significantly shifted the
aerodynamic distribution. Because the small size of aerosol
can be more critical to the health of worker, the aerodynamic
distribution and fine particle fraction of aerosol should be
concerned for the safety of worker. Therefore, the control of
arc current could be useful to minimize the potential haz-
ard of aerosol for the worker. This experimental data on the
characteristics of the plasma cutting fume will be useful in
the evaluation of potential health risks associated with both
metal fabrication and nuclear industry in the cutting process.
Experimental
Fume chamber and automatic metal cutting system
In laboratory experiments, an isolated fume chamber was
designed to measure aerosol particles produced without
external leakage. The chamber was designed to be 1.3 m
wide, 1.0 m long, and 0.66 m high. Clean air was continu-
ously drawn into the chamber through a HEPA filter installed
on the side of the chamber. Fume produced by metal cutting
was released through a sampling pipe with the opposite side
of the chamber installed the air inlet port. The sampling
line was installed as short as possible without bending for
minimizing measurement error. Also, the inner walls of the
chamber and the sampling pipe were coated to prevent parti-
cle losses by sticking to the surface. A blower pump operated
at a flow rate of 1700 L/min.
A plasma cutter (Powermax 125, Hypertherm) was used
to cut the steel plate. The plasma cutter was fixed in the
center of the chamber ceiling. The plasma cutting device
operated up to 125 A current with supplying compressed
air. An automatic cutting system was designed for reproduc-
ibility of experiments consists of a dross box, a servo motor,
a programmable logic controller, and a touch screen. The
movable table controlled by the servo-motor system helped
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Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624
to control the cutting speed and cutting length automatically.
The movement of metal plate was controlled at 100 μm per
step by servo motor in the Y-direction (Fig. 1).
Metal plate sample and cutting condition
The sample metals were processed with a thickness of
10 mm for placing on the dross box. Three different samples
(SS304, SS316L, mild steel) with different chemical com-
positions were selected for plasma cutting. A SS304 steel
is composed of 17.5–19.5% Cr, 8–12% Ni, 2% Mn, 0.1%
N, 0.75% Si, 0.045% P, 0.03% S, 0.03% C, with the rest of
Fe. A SS316L stainless steel is composed of 16–18% Cr,
10–14% Ni, 2–3% Mo, 2% Mn, 0.1% N, 0.75% Si, 0.045%
P, 0.03% S, 0.03% C, with the rest of Fe. The main differ-
ence between SS316L and SS304 steel is the molybdenum
content. SS316L steel is austenite chromium–nickel stainless
steel containing 2–3% molybdenum, which increases corro-
sion resistance and strength at high temperatures. Mild steel
is composed of most Fe with 0.6–0.9% Mn, 0.2% C, 0.05%
S, 0.04% P. Mild steel, also called plain carbon steel, is cur-
rently the most common form of steel because it provides
acceptable material properties for many applications while
the price is relatively low. Unlike other stainless steel, it has
a high carbon content and low levels of chromium or nickel.
Low-carbon steel contains about 0.05–0.25% carbon, which
is flexible and ductile.
The cutting speed was fixed at 10 mm/s. The minimum
value of plasma arc torch current was set to 75  A, the
minimum ampere for cutting metal samples at a speed of
10 mm/s. The plasma arc cutter was set at various plasma
current levels of 75, 90, and 125 A, and cutting lengths of 3,
6, 15 cm. Before the metal cutting process, the blower was
operated for at least 10 min to make a cleanroom environ-
ment. Metal oxide particles and gases produced during the
cutting operation were extracted from the fume chamber to
the sampling pipe. The generated fume was measured for
4 min after the end of the cut, the time when the aerosol
concentration was reduced to the background level. All three
metals were found to be cut to the completely opposite side
in all operating conditions. The kerf width increased as the
plasma arc current used for metal cutting increased (Fig. 2).
The kerf widths were measured by using the digital caliper
(CD-15APX, Mitutoyo Co.), which has a rated accuracy of
0.02 mm and a resolution of 0.01 mm. In the case of mild
steel, the cutting lengths in frontside were shown very simi-
lar to those in the backside. On the other hand, SS304 and
SS316L could not be completely cut the backside of the
metal in the 75 A and 90 A current cutting environment.
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624 615

Fig. 1  The metal chamber for

aerosol measurement from
metal cutting in KAIST Nuclear
Fuel Cycle Lab. The plasma
cutting device (Powermax 125,
Hypertherm) was fixed in the
center of the chamber ceiling.
A metal sample was moved into
setting position by the servo-
motor system at a constant
speed

Particle size and mass distribution measurement
Metal fume is released externally through sampling pipes,
some of which are used for analysis through an isometric
sampler. Particle measurement was performed by using an
electric low pressure impactor ­(ELPI+®, DEKATI). Since
the generated amount of metal fume exceeds the E ­ LPI+
measurement limit, a diluter (eDiluter™, DEKATI) with
fixed 1:60 dilution factor was connected before E ­ LPI+ input
port (Fig. 3).
The ­ELPI+ consists of a unipolar corona charger, a cas-
cade impactor, and sensitive electrometers. Because the par-
ticles are charged by unipolar corona chargers, they transmit
electrical signals to the 14 collection stages. The measured
current signals are converted to the number and mass con-
centration using particle size dependent relations describ-
ing the properties of the charger and the impactor stages.
The medium point of cut-off aerodynamic diameter in col-
lection stages were 0.006, 0.0146, 0.0289, 0.0541, 0.0946,
0.155, 0.256, 0.381, 0.602, 0.947, 1.63, 2.47, 3.65, 5.36, and
9.88 μm when the sampling rate is 10 L/min. All particles
of size from 6 nm to 10 μm are collected in each of the
different 14 size stages. All of measured distribution data
were converted into the normalized form to compare each
distribution form directly. Because of the broad range of
the measurement from 6 nm up to 10 μm size, linear scales
make it hard to distinguish the peaks in the distribution
data. Instead, the size distribution function is usually plot-
ted as a lognormal form describing in the following equa-
tions [24–28]. Normalized number per logarithmic diameter
denoted by a “(dN/N)/dlogDp” (Eq. 1) and normalized mass
per logarithmic diameter denoted by a “(dM/M)/dlogDp”
(Eq. 2) were plotted along the Y-axis.
dN dN
= (1)
N × d log Dp N × (log Dp,u − log Dp,l )
where N is the total number of particles, dN is the number
of particles in the range.
dM dM
= (2)
M × d log Dp M × (log Dp,u − log Dp,l )
where M is the total mass of particles, dM is the mass of
particles in the range, and dlogDp is the difference in the log

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616 Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624

Results

Number and mass aerodynamic diameter

distribution of different metal plate

We compared the number and mass aerodynamic diam-

Fig. 2  Kerf width and cutting length obtained in plasma arc cutting
on a SS304, b SS316L, and c mild steel
of the aerodynamic diameter width. dlogDp is calculated by
subtracting the log of the lower stage aerodynamic diameter
­ LPI+
(logDp,l) from the log of the upper stage (logDp,u) in E
properties.
eter distribution under different operation conditions on
SS304, SS316L, and mild steel. The distribution data were
converted into the normalized form to compare each dis-
tribution form directly. The normalized distribution form
is used to avoid confusing from the different total counted
value.
For SS304 cut, mass aerodynamic diameter distribution
showed a bi-modal distribution which has two peaks at
0.256–0.602 μm and 3.65–9.88 μm (Fig. 4), whereas, num-
ber aerodynamic diameter distribution showed a single-
peaked distribution at 0.0946–0.381 μm (Fig. 5).
For SS316L cut, both mass and number aerodynamic
diameter distribution showed a similar trend for SS304
(Figs.  4, 5). The mass aerodynamic diameter distribu-
tion of SS316L showed a bi-modal distribution which has
two peaks at 0.256–0.947 μm and 5.36–9.88 μm (Fig. 6),
whereas, number distribution of SS316L showed a single-
peaked distribution at 0.155–0.602 μm (Fig. 7).
However, the number distribution of mild steel showed
a different trend to those of SS304 and SS316L (Figs. 5,
7). The mass distribution of mild steel showed a bi-
modal distribution with two peaks with 0.256–0.602 μm
and 3.65–9.88  μm was the same as in the preced-
ing case (Fig.  8). For the number distribution of mild
steel, however, the addition of a peak was shown at
0.006–0.0146 μm, showing bi-modal distribution the same
as the form of mass distribution (Fig. 9).

Fig. 3  Schematic of the isoki-

netic sample extraction system
for particle measurement using
eDiluter™ and ­ELPI+®

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Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624 617

Fig. 4  Mass aerodynamic diameter distribution of 304 stainless steel cle symbol with dash line represented at 6 cm of cutting length. The
cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75 A plasma arc current, b 90 triangle symbol with dash-dot line represented at 15  cm of cutting
A plasma arc current, and c 125 A plasma arc current. The square length
symbol with solid line represented at 3 cm of cutting length. The cir-

Fig. 5  Number aerodynamic diameter distribution of 304 stainless steel cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75 A plasma arc current, b 90 A
plasma arc current, and c 125 A plasma arc current

Effect of plasma power on the aerodynamic
distribution of aerosols
As the plasma arc current increased from 75 to 90 A and
125 A, the total mass of particles generated from metal cut-
ting was increased (Fig. 10). In the 15 cm cutting condi-
tion which is most evident in increasing effect, SS304 cut
confirmed that the total mass increased by about four times
when the plasma current was increased from 75 to 125 A,
with a mass value of 156 to 593 mg/m3. It was found that
under the same experimental conditions, the mass was
increased by 4.5 times in SS316L steel cutting and 2.5 times
in mild steel cutting.
However, the relationship between the total parti-
cle number and arc current showed different tendencies
depending on the type of metal material and cutting length
(Fig. 11). In the plasma cutting on SS304 steel with 15 cm
cutting length, the total number of particles under 125

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618 Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624

Fig. 6  Mass aerodynamic diameter distribution of 316L stainless steel cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75  A plasma arc current, b 90  A
plasma arc current, and c 125 A plasma arc current

Fig. 7  Number aerodynamic diameter distribution of 316L stainless steel cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75 A plasma arc current, b 90 A
plasma arc current, and c 125 A plasma arc current

A condition was 40,242,511 cm −3 indicating a 2.6-fold
increase from the number of particles 15,381,365 cm −3
under 75 A conditions. It was a slight increase com-
pared to the total mass increase of 3.8 times. In contrast,
the total number of particles in mild steel cut tended to
decrease by 0.68 times from 33,448,539 cm −3 at 75 A
to 22,869,071 cm−3 at 125 A condition. In addition, the
particle number change tendency varied depending on
the cutting length. As can be seen in Fig. 11c, a different
relationship between the total number of particles and arc
current was observed when the cutting length conditions
were 3 cm, 6 cm and 15 cm on mild steel.

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Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624 619

Fig. 8  Mass aerodynamic diameter distribution of mild steel cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75 A plasma arc current, b 90 A plasma arc
current, and c 125 A plasma arc current

Fig. 9  Number aerodynamic diameter distribution of mild steel cut with plasma cutter operated at a 75 A plasma arc current, b 90 A plasma arc
current, and c 125 A plasma arc current

Discussion distributed has a bi-modal form which has an additional peak

Effect of steel type on the mass and number
aerodynamic distribution
Mass aerodynamic diameter distribution showed a bi-modal
distribution, whereas the number aerodynamic diameter dis-
tribution showed a single-peaked distribution on SS304 and
SS316L steel. In mild steel cutting, however, the number
at the lowest stage.
During the plasma arc cutting process, aerosol parti-
cles are generated by complex mechanisms. Molten metals
are vaporized and formed the volatile oxides or explosion
of metallic droplets or a burst of gas bubbles. Plasma arc
welding has been studying very widely [13–20, 29–40]. In
contrast, plasma arc cutting studied by few researchers [4,
21–23]. Plasma arc cutting and plasma arc welding are simi-
lar processes; however, the origin of the aerosols is different
[2]. The previous researches [6, 21] confirmed that the vapor

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620 Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624

Fig. 10  Total particle mass produced as a function of the plasma arc current on a SS304, b SS316L, and c mild steel. The cutting length was set
at 3 cm, 6 cm, and 15 cm

Fig. 11  Total particle mass produced as a function of the plasma arc current on a SS304, b SS316L, and c mild steel. The cutting length was set
at 3 cm, 6 cm, and 15 cm

pressure of chemical element has a proportional relation
with the fine particle fraction of the aerosol. Although the
primary contents in the steels are iron, the different compo-
nent ratios of chemical elements in metal could affect the
aerodynamic diameter distribution. Comparing the chemi-
cal composition of the three metals, only mild steel has the
characteristics of high carbon content and low levels of chro-
mium or nickel. Therefore, the difference in number distribu-
tion can be induced because the component ratio of chemical
elements in mild steel is different from other metals.
The reason for the difference in number and mass distri-
bution is that the mass of a single particle collected at the
upper stage, which means particle size larger than 1 μm, is
significantly greater than that of a smaller particle. Although
it is showed that there are few particles with a size of 1 μm
or more in the number distribution, they have a significant
effect on the mass distribution. The bimodal aerodynamic
diameter distribution indicates that the dominant mechanism
of aerosols generation from plasma arc cutting process is
the vaporization process [21, 41, 42]. While the evaporation
process causes a peak at 0.1 μm, once the aerosol seeds are

13
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624 621
created, they form particles larger than 1 μm through the
growth process [6].
Effect of plasma current on the amount of aerosol
generation and fine particle fraction
It was confirmed that plasma arc current is an important fac-
tor affecting the kerf size and the amount of plasma fume.
The kerf width indicates the amount of material loss during
the cutting process. Therefore, minimizing the kerf width
is a major factor in reducing additional work by increasing
cutting quality. The previous studies showed that kerf width
was sensitive to the changes in the plasma cutting param-
eters such as cutting speed, plasma gas pressure, and arc
current [43–45]. Adalarasan et al. [44] showed that a higher
value of arc current resulted in increasing kerf width. This
study also found that both kerf widths in the frontside and
backside increased as the plasma arc current increased on
steel alloys (Fig. 12a, b). Consequently, the low plasma arc
current might be seen as beneficial for cutting. However,
the selection of low plasma arc current has a challenge on
the thick metal cut. In Fig. 12c, the cut length in backside
at 75 A and 90 A plasma arc current did not seem to be suf-
ficient to cut the SS304 and SS316L metal plate. If the metal
cutting is not completed, it will be necessary to repeat the
cutting process resulting in additional aerosol exposure to
the worker. That means the plasma arc cutting at a high cur-
rent could have the advantage to reduce the risk of rework.
However, it was confirmed that the high current condition
increased the total mass of the aerosol generated.
As shown in Fig. 10, the total mass of particles resulting
from the increase of plasma arc current from 75 to 125 A
Fig. 12  Variations of kerf width in a frontside and b backside of the metal according to the increase of plasma arc current. c Comparison of the
cut length in backside of the metal with plasma arc current
has increased by up to 4.5 times and at least 1.5 times. It is
a similar result that higher arc current induces more fume
generation in the previous study. Wang et al. [2] also con-
firmed that the high current created a greater number of fine
particle and oxidation level. The effect of plasma current on
the number aerodynamics distribution is related to the physi-
cal and chemical properties of cutting materials. The steel
consists of each chemical element having a different boiling
point. Therefore, increased the temperature of the spot area
at high plasma current may induce the liquid droplet explo-
sion of an element having a lower boiling point. The liquid
droplet explosion can cause larger sizes of aerosols to gener-
ate. Therefore, the high plasma current can generate more
amount of large size aerosols than the low current, because
of the increasing the possibility of liquid droplet explosion.
The health effects of ambient particular matter (PM) has
been studied a lot about lung cells [46–51]. Depending on
the aerodynamic diameters, PMs are generally classified
into three categories: ­P M 10, ­P M 2.5, and ­P M 0.1. ­P M 10 is
inhalable coarse particles, which are coarse particles with
a diameter between 2.5 and 10 μm. P ­ M 2.5, well known
for fine dust, refers to fine particles with a diameter of
less than 2.5 μm. P ­ M0.1 refers to ultra-fine particles with
a diameter of less than 0.1 μm. P ­ M2.5 and ­PM0.1 can eas-
ily enter the pulmonary alveoli where gas exchange takes
place and cross the membrane of lung cells [51]. There-
fore, inhalation of P­ M2.5 and P­ M0.1 can damage not only
breathing but also other organs because these particles
can spread to the blood circulation system through lung
cells [47, 49]. In this study, a quantitative analysis was
attempted by calculating fine particle fraction to confirm
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622
Fig. 13  Number fraction of fine particle generated during the 3 cm cut of a SS304, b SS316L, and c mild steel. The total number of ultrafine
particle ­(PM0.1) was defined by the number fraction of aerosol below the 0.1 μm size
the effect of plasma arc current on PM generation. The fine
particle fraction (FPF) was calculated by following Eq. 3:
dNx2 − dNx1
FPFx1−x2 =
N fine particle fraction could be a significant point in that the
where ­F PF x1–x2 is fine particle fraction between lower
sized x1 μm and upper sized x2 μm; N is the total number of
particles collected, and dNx is the number of particles less
than x μm sized.
The FPF was classified into three groups according to
the aerosol size: ­FPF0.006–0.01, FPF0.01–0.1, and ­FPF0.1–2.5.
The ­F PF 0.01–0.1 has shown a tendency to continue to
decrease with the increase of plasma arc current. At the
same time, the ­FPF0.1–2.5 tended to increase as opposed
to ­FPF0.01–0.1 result (Fig. 13). In conclusion, because the
fraction of aerosol particles larger than 0.1 μm increases,
a high plasma arc current could lead to an increase in total
aerosol mass generated from metal cutting. Because most
aerosols were smaller than 2.5 μm, there was little differ-
ence in the total number of P ­ M2.5 generation. However,
the total number of ­P M0.1 generation reached the mini-
mum a low point in 90 A arc current on SS304 and mild
steel. For the cutting on SS316L, the total number of ­PM0.1
was a slight decrease until 125 A arc current condition.
Therefore, it was possible to determine the optimization
of the plasma arc current from a safety perspective that
minimizes the risk of ultrafine particle inhalation. Fur-
ther research will be needed because the effects of aerosol
generation and kerf width on the increase of plasma arc
current could be different depending on the type, thickness
and cutting speed of the cutting material.
13
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624
There was a limitation in this study that did not take
into account important variables such as material thickness
and cutting speed. Nevertheless, the analysis of the effect
(3) of plasma arc current on the distribution of aerosols and
optimal plasma current was suggested for minimizing the
worker’s aerosol inhalation risk.
Conclusions
The characteristics of plasma cutting fume are significantly
associated with the plasma cutting parameters such as type
of metal, cutting length, and plasma arc current. We con-
firmed the plasma arc current that could affect the number
and mass aerodynamic diameter distributions of aerosols
in plasma arc cutting on the various steel such as SS304,
SS316L, and mild steel. The total aerosol mass resulting
from the increase of plasma arc current from 75 to 125 A
was increased by a minimum of 1.5 to a maximum of 4.5
times depending on cutting conditions, while the number of
total particles increased up to 2.6 times and in mild steel cuts
tended to decrease inversely. Through the calculation of fine
particle fraction, we concluded that increasing plasma power
contributes greatly to increasing the overall particle mass
by promoting the particle growth process. Furthermore, the
optimal plasma current was suggested for minimizing the
worker’s aerosol inhalation risk. This experimental study
could be helped to potentially minimize worker’s internal
exposure by carefully selecting the plasma arc current.
Acknowledgements  This work was financially supported by the
National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) by a grant funded
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2020) 323:613–624 623
by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea (Grant No.
NRF-2017M2A8A4018596).
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