Smart conditional sampler for airborne particles

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Poor air quality is a major concern with respect to the public health and environment. TZOA is a Canadiancompany that develops sensors for air quality monitoring. Most of the sensors developed in this field measurethe concentration and size distribution of suspended particulate matters, but provide no information on thecomposition of the particles. Particle composition is important in assessing the impacts of the particles andtheir source - that is finding ways of reducing the impacts.Particle composition has been characterized in a number of indoor air quality studies, but not with the spatialand temporal resolution needed to determine the major sources. Methods to characterize particle compositionare either extremely costly or very slow. The expertize needed to run the instrumentation, samplers and analysisis a very large barrier to obtaining the needed measurements.TZOA is aiming to design an inexpensive, small, and smart conditional particle sampler that can be deployedin a large quantity. A conditional sampler collects a limited number of samples for characteristic periods ofwind direction, occupation or system operation. This provides the information needed at low cost. Theproposed project aims to develop methods for the collection, composition analysis, and source apportionmentof aerosols collected by this sampler.