Development and Evaluation of a Prototype System for Collecting Sub-Hourly Ambient Aerosol for Chemical Analysis

ISSN： 1521-7388

Source： Aerosol Science and Technology, Vol.35, Iss.1, 2001-07, pp. : 596-601

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Abstract

Aerosol growth technology is used as a means of collecting ambient aerosol particles for subsequent chemical analyses. Condensational growth has previously been used in Condensation Nucleus Counters and in ultrafine particle concentrators at flow rates up to 110 L ^. min^-1. Here, air is sampled at a flow rate of 170 L ^.min^-1 and particles are grown by condensation of water vapor in a condenser maintained at 0.5°C after saturation by direct injection of steam. The resulting droplets are concentrated 13.6 fold using a twin-nozzle virtual impactor and collected in a liquid slurry with a real impactor in an all glass and plastic system. The prototype system's collection efficiency was tested with 0.1-3 m monodisperse fluorescent polystyrene latex particles. Particles initially &1t; 0.5 m are collected with an overall efficiency of 40%, which gradually increases to 68% for 3 m particles. The system delivers an aerosol slurry at a rate of 0.2 mL min^-1, i.e., suitable for analysis by multielement Graphite-Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, with system blanks adequate to permit quantitative analysis of Al, As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Sb, Se, and Zn in ambient suburban aerosol.