4 Material und Umwelt
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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.
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.
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.