Experimental Comparison of Two Portable and Real-Time Size Distribution Analyzers for Nano/Submicron Aerosol Measurements

Ta-Chih Hsiao,Wei-Cheng Ye,Ke-Ching Chen,Yao-Chuan Lee,Ying I Tsai,Khajornsak Sopajaree

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2015.10.0614

Abstract

ABSTRACTTwo portable, battery powered particle size distribution analyzers, TSI NanoScan scanning mobility particle sizer (TSI NanoScan SMPS 3910, USA) and Kanomax Portable Aerosol Mobility Spectrometer (Kanomax PAMS 3300, Japan), have been recently introduced to the market. Both are compact and allow researchers to rapidly measure and monitor ambient or indoor ultrafine and nanoparticles in real time. In addition, both instruments apply the SMPS measuring scheme, utilizing a corona charger in place of a radioactive neutralizer, and are integrated with a hand-held condensation particle counter (CPC). In this study, the different designs, flow schemes, and operational settings of both instruments have been summarized based on the information released by the manufacturers and the available published literature. The performance characteristics and monitoring capability of these two portable ultrafine to nanoparticle sizers were investigated and compared to a reference TSI 3936 lab-based SMPS under identical conditions. Reasonable agreement was found between the three instruments in terms of their efficiency in sizing and counting polydispersed particles. Of the two portable analyzers, PAMS was able to provide a higher sizing resolution for monodispersed particle measurements than NanoScan, when operated under the High Mode (higher sheath to aerosol flow ratio).

Highlights

The health risks associated with particulate matter (PM) are dependent on their composition and on their size (Cahill and Cahill, 2013)
The major modal sizes of the classified distributions measured by PAMS with and without an additional neutralizer were both located at 96.47 nm, which is slightly smaller than the modal size (98.2 nm) presented by the reference SMPS (Fig. 3)
This could be due to the lower sizing resolution for the PAMS compared to the reference SMPS

Summary

Introduction

The health risks associated with particulate matter (PM) are dependent on their composition and on their size (Cahill and Cahill, 2013). While the PM composition directly corresponds to toxicity, the PM size affects lung capture efficiency (Heyder et al, 1986). It has been reported that UFP can deposit efficiently in the alveolar region upon inhalation, and that the nanoparticles could potentially be taken up by brain cells (Oberdörster et al, 2005; Nel et al, 2006;). A major obstacle to gathering long-term exposure data has been the lack of suitable portable or personal instrumentation that can simultaneously monitor these ultrafine and nanoparticle size distributions (PSDs) in real time (Maynard and Kuempel, 2005; Maynard et al, 2006; Qi and Kulkarni, 2012; Ostraat et al, 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion