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CHARACTERIZATION AND GENERATION OF METAL AEROSOLS
Citation:
Zimmerman, N., D. Drehmel, AND J. Abbott. CHARACTERIZATION AND GENERATION OF METAL AEROSOLS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-78/013 (NTIS PB277013).
Description:
The report reviews techniques of metal aerosol generation for the purpose of establishing the state-of-the-art of the technology and guiding future researchers. Exposure to metal or metallic compound submicron aerosols is widespread in both industrial and general environments. Research in areas of health effects, sampling instrumentation, and air pollution control technology requires a reliable source of test aerosol. The report presents many mechanisms for generating metal aerosols, and discusses their applications, advantages, and disadvantages. Generation methods can be on a continuous or batch basis, with high or low concentrations and generation rates, and with monodisperse or polydisperse size distributions. The method chosen and the resulting aerosol depend on the requirements of the specific research being conducted. Metal aerosols generated by exploding wires, electric arcs, heating to evaporation, combustion, and dispersion are presented, with particular attention paid to particle size characteristics.