Field evaluation of a personal cascade impactor sampler (PCIS)

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the field evaluation of a personal cascade impactor sampler (PCIS). PCIS is a miniaturized cascade impactor, consisting of four impaction stages, followed by an after-filter. Particles are separated in the following aerodynamic particle diameter ranges: 2 O (2.7 kPa). For field evaluation, the PCIS was collocated with other samplers including the micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI), scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) in Los Angeles and Claremont, CA. PCIS and MOUDI agree very well for coarse particulate matter (PM) (PM 2.5−10 ) mass concentrations. The fine PM (PM 2.5 ) mass as measured by PCIS is in excellent agreement with SMPS–APS measurement (∼1.02 times) and slightly higher (∼1.1 times) than the MOUDI measurements. Time-integrated (size fractionated) PM 2.5 mass, inorganic ions (nitrate and sulfate), elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) concentrations obtained with PCIS and MOUDI were found to be in very good agreement with few differences in the 2.5 nitrate and total carbon measurements by PCIS and MOUDI using the ADI and Sunset labs monitors are in close agreement for all size fractions, indicating that any differences between MOUDI and PCIS measurements for time-integrated data might be due to artifacts associated with long-term sampling and not to differences in individual cut-points. The performance of the PCIS was also evaluated in wind tunnel tests at wind speeds up to 8 km/h. These tests showed that particle sampling efficiency and separation characteristics of the PCIS are unaffected by the wind speeds for particles up to 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter.