An aerosol beam spectrometer

Abstract

This paper describes two new aerosol beam techniques, namely, aerosol beam focusing (ABF) and aerosol beam spectrometry (ABS). These techniques minimize troublesome features of aerosol beams and allow full use to be made of the uniques properties of aerosol beams in the design of various instruments. Laboratory experiments testing the capability of these new techniques are described. They show that ABS can separate an aerosol into its various size components for automatic counting and classification or simply for collection of a size separated sample on an impaction surface. Possible applications, illustrating the use of aerosol beams in various measuring devices, are proposed. In particular, the new techniques can be used in the design of automatic measuring instruments, even providing a method for the automatic and simultaneous measurement of aerosol size distribution and chemical composition of the different size intervals.