A Miniature Monitor for Time-Resolved Airborne Particle Chemistry

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的母项目旨在开发一种小型，轻质，电池供电的收集器，适合于对空气中颗粒的化学成分进行时间分辨的个人和微环境监测。此次修改案的目的是，通过开发对超细、纳米颗粒和细颗粒都有效的空气-空气颗粒浓缩器，提高该技术。该浓缩器可作为母项目下正在开发的微型颗粒收集器的合适入口；这也将适用于许多其他暴露，毒理学和超细颗粒表征应用。该方法采用了我们的专利水冷凝技术，其中小至0.003米的颗粒可以在差动扩散层流中封装在3-5米的水滴中。一旦扩大，液滴在空气动力学上通过汇聚流在一个锋利的边缘孔集中。由于液滴的停留时间很短，化学伪影被最小化。通过这种方法，我们预计小至0.008 m的颗粒的聚焦和10倍的空气对空气浓度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our parent project aims to develop a small, lightweight, battery-powered collector suitable for time-resolved personal and micro-environmental monitoring of the chemical constituents of airborne particles. This revision submission aims to enhance that technology through the development of an air-to-air particle concentrator that is effective for ultrafine and nanometer-sized particles as well as fine particles. This concentrator can serve as a suitable inlet for the miniature particle collector being developed under the parent project; and that will also be suitable for many other exposure, toxicology and ultrafine particle characterization applications. The approach utilizes our patented water condensation technology, wherein particles as small as 0.003 5m can be encapsulated in a 3-5m water droplet in a differentially- diffusive, laminar flow. Once enlarged the droplets are aerodynamically focused through converging flow in a sharp-edged orifice. Because residence times of the droplets are short, chemical artifacts are minimized. With this approach we anticipate the focusing and 10-fold air-to-air concentration of particles as small as 0.008 5m. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Ultrafine and fine particles are ubiquitous in our environment, yet epidemiological studies have shown statistically significant relationships between their concentrations and rates of morbidity and mortality. Ultrafine particles are specifically implicated. Proposed is the development of an instrument to concentrate ultrafine and fine airborne particles that will aid in the assessment their toxicity and their levels in the air we breathe.