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TECHNICAL NOTE: PERFORMANCE OF A PERSONAL ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR PARTICLE SAMPLER
Citation:
Cardello, N., J. Volckens, M P. Tolocka, R W. Wiener, AND T J. Buckley. TECHNICAL NOTE: PERFORMANCE OF A PERSONAL ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR PARTICLE SAMPLER. AEROSOL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 36(2):162-165, (2002).
Impact/Purpose:
The core aerosol research for FY01 includes evaluation of newly developed and developing methods for the chemical analysis and sampling of PM in ambient air, especially state-of-the-art continuous and non-invasive aerosol measurement methods, and the study of the aerosol sampling processes to better assess the true aerosol concentration and size distributions observed in the ambient environment. An additional emphasis is placed on integrated sampling for stable and semi-volatile organic aerosol species. This latter area addresses the state-of-the-art in this measurement area. This program supports Title I of the Clean Air Act in its mandate for performing research to support the NAAQS, GPRA goal 1.1.5, and ORD's main research objective on PM.
Much of this work directly supports OAQPS and may be applied within the Supersites Program managed jointly by OAQPS and ORD. This research also will support many of ORD's long-term research goals by providing more reliable information (decrease uncertainty) on ambient aerosols that can be utilized for characterizing risk.
Finally, an APM, has been established to develop measurement methods for causal factors, due in 2004. Currently, there are a number of causal factor hypotheses, but none have sufficient evidence to support developing one measurement/analytical method over another. The PM methods team will support and work with Joellen Lewtas on methods for the collection and analysis of semi-volatile and aerosol phase organic species to help address this APM. The PM methods team will continue to work within the Supersites program and with OAQPS and their new partners in ORIA to further evaluate continuous species specific methods and aerosol physical property measurement methods.
Description:
Filter-based methods used to measure aerosols with semi-volatile constituents are subject to biases from adsorption and volatilization that may occur during sampling (McDow et al., 1990, Turpin et al., 1994, Volckens et al., 1999; Tolocka et al. 2001). The development and evaluation of suitable methods for quantitative measurement of semi-volatile organic aerosols is of public health significance because this class of chemicals can include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, and many other known toxins (Harkov, 1986; Finlayson-Pitts and Pitts, 1999). Furthermore, the need exists for personal exposure measurements, since micro-environmental or outdoor surrogates have been shown to have limited utility (Wallace, 1996; Rodes et al. 1991). Previous laboratory and field studies have demonstrated that electrostatic precipitation may be an effective means for sampling such aerosols (Leith, et al., 1996, Volckens et al. 1999, 2000). However, samples of semi-volatile aerosols collected by electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are susceptible to reactions and degradation due to ozone generated by the corona (Kaupp and Umlauf, 1992). Although the effect of electrode polarity, humidity, temperature, and geometry on ozone generation in corona discharges has been investigated for air cleaning devices (White, 1963, Castle, 1964, Viner et al. 1993, Abdel-Salam et al. 1997, Boelter et al. 1997) and xerographic photocopiers and printers (Nashimoto, 1998), such data are currently unavailable to assess the performance of this new air sampling device. Recently, electrode type has been identified a major factor affecting ozone generation in electrostatic instruments (Nashimoto, 1983, Boelter et al., 1997). This paper builds on prior studies of electrostatic devices by evaluating and optimizing the effect of design properties on the ozone generation and collection efficiency of a unique personal ESP particle sampler. The overall objective of this research is to develop an improved method for sampling aerosols with semi-volatile constituents.
This article has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.