TY - JOUR A1 - Liaskos, C. A1 - Rhoderick, G. A1 - Hodges, J. A1 - Possolo, A. A1 - Wilke, Olaf T1 - Pilot comparison CCQM-P177 - monoterpenes in nitrogen at 2.5 nmol/mol - final report N2 - Growing awareness of the impact of monoterpenes on climate, atmospheric chemistry, and indoor air quality has necessitated the development of measurement standards to globally monitor and control their emissions. For National Metrology Institutes to develop such standards, it is essential that they demonstrate measurement equivalence for assigned values at the highest levels of accuracy. This report describes the results of a pilot comparison for 4 key monoterpene species: α-pinene, 3-carene, R-limonene and 1,8-cineole, at a nominal amount-of-substance fraction of 2.5 nmol mol-1. The objective of this comparison is to evaluate participant capabilities to measure trace-level monoterpenes using their own calibration techniques. KW - Pilot comparison KW - CCQM KW - Monoterpene KW - Accuracy PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/0026-1394/57/1A/08018 SN - 0026-1394 SN - 1681-7575 VL - 57 IS - 1A SP - 08018-1 EP - 08018-21 PB - IOP Science AN - OPUS4-51111 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bucar, K. A1 - Malet, J. A1 - Stabile, L. A1 - Pražnikar, J. A1 - Seeger, Stefan A1 - Žitnik, M. T1 - Statistics of a Sharp GP2Y Low-Cost Aerosol PM Sensor Output Signals N2 - In this work, we characterise the performance of a Sharp optical aerosol sensor model GP2Y1010AU0F. The sensor was exposed to different environments: to a clean room, to a controlled atmosphere with known aerosol size distribution and to the ambient atmosphere on a busy city street. During the exposure, the output waveforms of the sensor pulses were digitised, saved and a following offline analysis enabled us to study the behaviour of the sensor pulse-by-pulse. A linear response of the sensor on number concentration of the monosized dispersed PSL particles was shown together with an almost linear dependence on particle diameters in the 0.4 to 4 micrometer range. The gathered data about the sensor were used to predict its response to an ambient atmosphere, which was observed simultaneously with a calibrated optical particle counter. KW - Aerosol KW - Partikel KW - Aerosolsensor KW - Luftgüte KW - Umweltmessung PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-517466 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/s20236707 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 20 IS - 23 SP - 6707 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Schweiz AN - OPUS4-51746 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kayser, Y. A1 - Gross, A. A1 - Hönicke, P. A1 - Osan, J. A1 - Pollakowski-Herrmann, B. A1 - Seeger, Stefan A1 - Beckhoff, B. T1 - Reliable chemical analysis of aerosols by reference-free X-ray spectrometry for monitoring airborne particulate matter N2 - The physical and chemical analysis of aerosols using reliable and physically traceable methods is important for the thorough investigation of airborne particles to support a better understanding of their origin as well as their health and climate impacts. Within the European Metrology Research AeroMet project,the aim of hysikalisch–Technische Bundesanstalt’s (PTB) X-ray spectrometry group is to develop and establish traceable and reliable X-ray methods to measure the elemental mass deposition per unit area, the elemental composition,and the chemical binding state of particulate matter supported by a flat substrate. This approach can substantially contribute to support quantitative analytical methods during on-site measurement campaigns where portable Instrumentation is employed by qualifying suitable calibration samples for commercial analytical X-ray instruments and by investigating samples collected during the field campaign. KW - AEROMET project KW - X-Ray analysis KW - TXRF KW - Aerosols KW - Particles KW - Air pollution KW - Elemental composition PY - 2020 UR - https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/reliable-chemical-analysis-of-aerosols-by-reference-free-x-ray-spectrometry-for-monitoring-airborne-particulate-matter SN - 0887-6703 VL - 35 IS - 10 SP - 42 EP - 46 PB - MJH Life Sciences CY - Cranbury, NJ AN - OPUS4-53357 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Even, Morgane A1 - Wilke, Olaf A1 - Kalus, Sabine A1 - Schultes, P. A1 - Hutzler, C. A1 - Luch, A. T1 - Formaldehyde emissions from wooden toys: Comparison of different measurement methods and assessment of exposure N2 - Formaldehyde is considered as carcinogenic and is emitted from particleboards and plywood used in toy manufacturing. Currently, the flask method is frequently used in Europe for market surveillance purposes to assess formaldehyde release from toys, but its concordance to Levels measured in emission test chambers is poor. Surveillance laboratories are unable to afford laborious and expensive emission chamber testing to comply with a new amendment of the European Toy Directive; they need an alternative method that can provide reliable results. Therefore, the application of miniaturised emission test chambers was tested. Comparisons between a 1 m3 emission test chamber and 44 mL microchambers with two particleboards over 28 days and between a 24 L desiccator chamber and the microchambers with three puzzle samples over 10 days resulted in a correlation coefficient r2 of 0.834 for formaldehyde at steady state. The correlation between the results obtained in microchambers vs. flask showed a high variability over 10 samples (r2: 0.145), thereby demonstrating the error-proneness of the flask method in comparison to methods carried out under ambient parameters. An exposure assessment was also performed for three toy puzzles: indoor formaldehyde concentrations caused by puzzles were not negligible (up to 8 µg/m3), especially when more conservative exposure scenarios were considered. KW - EN 717-3 KW - Formaldehyde KW - Wooden toys KW - Emission test chamber KW - Flask method KW - Microchamber PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-520196 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14020262 VL - 14 IS - 2 (Special issue: Measurement of the environmental impact of materials) SP - 262-1 EP - 262-16 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-52019 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seeger, Stefan A1 - Osan, J. A1 - Czömpöly, O. A1 - Gross, A. A1 - Stosnach, H. A1 - Stabile, L. A1 - Ochsenkuehn-Petropoulou, M. A1 - Tsakanika, L. A1 - Lymperopoulou, T. A1 - Goddard, S. A1 - Fiebig, M. A1 - Gaie-Levrel, F. A1 - Kayser, Y. A1 - Beckhoff, B. T1 - Quantification of Element Mass Concentrations in Ambient Aerosols by Combination of Cascade Impactor Sampling and Mobile Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy N2 - Quantitative chemical analysis of airborne particulate matter (PM) is vital for the understanding of health effects in indoor and outdoor environments, as well as for enforcing EU air quality regulations. Typically, airborne particles are sampled over long time periods on filters, followed by lab-based analysis, e.g., with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). During the EURAMET EMPIR AEROMET project, cascade impactor aerosol sampling is combined for the first time with on-site total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectroscopy to develop a tool for quantifying particle element compositions within short time intervals and even on-site. This makes variations of aerosol chemistry observable with time resolution only a few hours and with good size resolution in the PM10 range. The study investigates the proof of principles of this methodological approach. Acrylic discs and silicon wafers are shown to be suitable impactor carriers with sufficiently smooth and clean surfaces, and a non-destructive elemental mass concentration measurement with a lower limit of detection around 10 pg/m3 could be achieved. We demonstrate the traceability of field TXRF measurements to a radiometrically calibrated TXRF reference, and the results from both analytical methods correspond satisfactorily. KW - TXRF KW - Reference method KW - Cascade impactor KW - Ambient aerosols KW - Particles KW - Air quality monitoring KW - Element mass concentration KW - Size resolved chemical composition KW - Time resolved chemical composition KW - ICP-MS PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-521860 UR - http://www.aerometproject.com/ DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12030309 SN - 2073-4433 VL - 12 IS - 3 SP - 309 EP - 337 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Schweiz AN - OPUS4-52186 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Even, Morgane A1 - Juritsch, Elevtheria A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - Measurement of very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs) in indoor air by sorbent-based active sampling: Identifying the gaps towards standardisation N2 - The ISO 16000-6 standard describes a method for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor and test chamber air by sorbent-based active sampling, thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). It also gives directions to adapt this methodology to very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs). Indeed, toxicologically based guideline values are being implemented for these compounds and it becomes necessary to measure them. But a comprehensive and robust measurement method is lacking. This work highlights the points that still need to be explored towards the standardisation of a suitable procedure: investigations on sorbent combinations, the suitability of chromatography columns and the use of gaseous standards are required. The biggest challenge remains in the fact that strong sorbents adsorb water together with VVOCs. Water may impair the analysis and the optimal approach to eliminate it is still to be found and integrated into the sampling strategy. KW - Solvents KW - Air analysis KW - VOC KW - Thermal desorption KW - Gas chromatography KW - ISO 16000-6 PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-523919 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2021.116265 VL - 140 SP - 116265 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-52391 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Horender, S. A1 - Auderset, K. A1 - Quincey, P. A1 - Seeger, Stefan A1 - Skov, S. N. A1 - Dierschel, K. A1 - Smith, T. O.M. A1 - Williams, K. A1 - Aegerter, C. C. A1 - Kalbermatter, D. M. A1 - Gaie-Levrel, F. A1 - Vasilatou, K. T1 - Facility for production of ambient-like model aerosols (PALMA) inthe laboratory: application in the intercomparison of automated PMmonitors with the reference gravimetric method N2 - A new facility has been developed which allows for a stable and reproducible production of ambient-like model aerosols (PALMA) in the laboratory. The set-up consists of multiple aerosol generators, a custom-made flow tube homogeniser, isokinetic sampling probes, and a system to control aerosol temperature and humidity. Model aerosols containing elemental carbon, secondary organic matter from the ozonolysis of α-pinene, inorganic salts such as ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, mineral dust particles,and water were generated under different environmental conditions and at different number and mass concentrations. The aerosol physical and chemical properties were characterised with an array of experimental methods, including scanning mobility particle sizing, ion chromatography, total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and thermo-optical analysis. The facility is very versatile and can find applications in the calibration and performance characterisation of aerosol instruments monitoring ambient air. In this study, we performed, as proof of concept, an intercomparison of three different commercial PM (particulate matter) monitors (TEOM1405, DustTrak DRX 8533 and Fidas Frog) with the gravimetric reference method under three simulated environmental scenarios. The results are presented and compared to previous field studies. We believe that the laboratory-based method for simulating ambient aerosols presented here could provide in the future a useful alternative to time-consuming and expensive field campaigns, which are often required for instrument certification and calibration. KW - Model aerosols KW - Intercomparison KW - PM monitors KW - Aerosol gravimetry PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-521342 DO - https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1225-2021 VL - 14 IS - 2 SP - 1225 EP - 1238 PB - Copernicus Publications AN - OPUS4-52134 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Even, Morgane A1 - Hutzler, C. A1 - Wilke, Olaf A1 - Luch, A. T1 - Emissions of volatile organic compounds from polymer-based consumer products: comparison of three emission chamber sizes N2 - The ISO 16000 standard series provide guidelines for emission measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from building materials. However, polymer-based consumer products such as toys may also release harmful substances into indoor air. In such cases, the existing standard procedures are unsuitable for official control laboratories due to high costs for large emission testing chambers. This paper aims at developing and comparing alternative and more competitive methods for the emission testing of consumer products. The influence of the emission chamber size was investigated as smaller chambers are more suited to the common size of consumer products and may help to reduce the costs of testing. Comparison of the performance of a 203 l emission test chamber with two smaller chambers with the capacity of 24 l and 44 ml, respectively, was carried out by using a polyurethane reference material spiked with 14 VOCs during the course of 28 days. The area-specific emission rates obtained in the small chambers were always similar to those of the 203 l reference chamber after a few hours. This implies that smaller chambers can provide at least useful numbers on the extent of polymer-based consumer product emissions into indoor air, thereby supporting meaningful exposure assessments. KW - Comparison KW - Consumer products KW - Emission chamber KW - Reference material KW - Volatile organic compounds PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-493697 DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12605 VL - 30 IS - 1 SP - 40 EP - 48 PB - Wiley VCH-Verlag AN - OPUS4-49369 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ahlawat, A. A1 - Seeger, Stefan A1 - Gottschalk, Martin A1 - Tuch, T. A1 - Wiedensohler, A. T1 - Observation of systematic deviations between Faraday cup aerosol electrometers for varying particle sizes and flow rates - results of the AEROMET FCAE workshop N2 - Condensation particle counters (CPCs) are widely used for the measurement of aerosol particle number concentrations in the size range from approximately 3 nm to 3 μm. For an SI-traceable calibration of the size-dependent counting efficiency, which is advisable on a regular basis and required in several applications, Faraday cup aerosol electrometers (FCAEs) are considered to be a suitable SI-traceable reference.While the volumetric aerosol inlet flowrate and the electrical current measurement in FCAEs can be related to respective SI references, inter-comparison exercises for FCAEs are still performed on a regular basis to establish reliable uncertainty budgets and to further investigate the influences of designs and operational parameters on comparability. This is strongly demanded in the international community of metrological institutes and aerosol calibration facilities around the world, which provide CPC calibrations. In the present study, the performance of FCAEs was investigated,using Ag test aerosol particles with a 30 nm particle diameter by varying the inlet flowrates from 0.5 l min−1 to 4 l min−1. From our experimental results, significant deviations were observed in FCAE currents at sample flowrates smaller than 1.5 l min−1. It is recommended that these discrepancies should be quantified before an FCAE is used for CPC calibration at low sample flowrates and small particle sizes in the sub-30 nm size range. KW - Faraday cup aerosol electrometer KW - CPC calibration KW - Inter-comparison KW - Aerosol measurement instruments PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-531315 DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ac0710 SN - 1681-7575 SN - 0026-1394 VL - 58 IS - 5 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Institute of Physics (IOP) CY - Bristol, UK AN - OPUS4-53131 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - James, G. L. A1 - Latif, M. T. A1 - Isa, M. N. M. A1 - Bakar, M. F. A. A1 - Yusuf, N. Y. M. A1 - Broughton, William A1 - Murad, A. M. A1 - Abu Bakar, F. D. T1 - Metagenomic datasets of air samples collected during episodes of severe smoke-haze in Malaysia N2 - Transboundary emissions of smoke-haze from land and forest fires have recurred annually during the dry period (June to October, over the past few decades) in South East Asia. Hazardous air quality has been recorded in Malaysia during these episodes. Agricultural practices such as slash-and-burn of biomass and peat fires particularly in Sumatera and Kalimantan, Indonesia, have been implicated as the major causes of the haze. Past findings have shown that a diversity of microbes can thrive in air including in smoke-haze polluted air. In this study, metagenomic data were generated to reveal the diversity of microorganisms in air during days with and without haze. Air samples were collected during non-haze (2013A01) and two haze (2013A04 and 2013A05) periods in the month of June 2013. DNA was extracted from the samples, subjected to Multiple Displacement Amplification and whole genome sequencing (Next Generation Sequencing) using the HiSeq 2000 Platform. Extensive bio-informatic analyses of the raw sequence data then followed. Raw reads from these six air samples were deposited in the NCBI SRA databases under Bioproject PRJNA662021 with accession numbers SRX9087478, SRX9087479 and SRX9087480. KW - Forest fires KW - Haze Samples KW - NGS KW - Multiple Displacement Amplification PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-528973 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107124 SN - 2352-3409 VL - 36 SP - 107124 PB - Elsevier Inc. CY - Amsterdam, Netherlands AN - OPUS4-52897 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -