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Innovative Aerosol Collector for On-Line Analysis of Individual Particulate Organics—Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, MA  01821-3976; 978-663-9500, http://www.aerodyne.com

Dr. Hacene Boudries, Principal Investigator, hboudries@aerodyne.com

Dr. Charles E. Kolb, Business Official, kolb@aerodyne.com

DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-05ER84269

Amount:  $99,989

Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in affecting the earth’s climate, visibility, acid deposition, and human health.  Detailed chemical characterization of ambient aerosols is necessary in order to fully understand the physical and chemical processes underlying the formation and transformation of aerosols in the atmosphere.  However, current analytical methods for detailed aerosol chemical analysis require long sampling times, are subject to artifacts during aerosol collection and storage, and are labor intensive. To address the sampling problem, this project will develop an Aersol Collection Module, which will concentrate the aerosols in a small volume so that desorbed species can be efficiently trasferred to appropriate analytical instruments for on-line, detailed chemical analysis.  Phase I will design and assemble the aerosol collection chamber, integrate it into an existing vacuum chamber, and interface it to an analytical instrument.  Sampling of  laboratory generated organic aerosols and real ambient particles will be used to evaluate the performance of the Aerosol Collector Module.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:  The Aerosol Collector Module should provide a universal interface for aerosol collection and concentration that can easily be adapted to existing conventional analytical techniques and new spectrometric techniques.  The instrument will be ideal for on-line characterization of airborne aerosols emitted from anthropogenic and natural sources or photochemically produced in the atmosphere.