Issue 2, 2023

Development of a microsampler suitable for aerial collection of aerosol particles

Abstract

A microsampler for collecting aerosol particles on an unmanned aerial system (UAS) was designed and evaluated in the laboratory for dry (no condensed water) and wet (foggy, misty, or rainy) air conditions. This microsampler was produced using a customized impactor design to minimize size, weight, and power requirements uniquely suitable for aerial applications, also maximize the collection efficiency above a specific cut-off size in a short time and concentrate particles for future automated analysis using microfluidics. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results suggested a design that provided a higher sampling efficiency with minimal inlet loss. The microsampler was experimentally evaluated using fluorescent polystyrene latex (PSL) particles at four nominal sizes. The experimental results at the four PSL particle sizes agree reasonably well with the collection efficiencies predicted by CFD. We found no effect of humidity on the collection efficiency of the microsampler under conditions at 80% relative humidity. However, when condensed water exists, significant biases on the collection efficiencies were found suggesting that this microsampler should not be used under conditions where there is condensed water in the atmosphere, e.g., foggy, misty, and rainy conditions.

Graphical abstract: Development of a microsampler suitable for aerial collection of aerosol particles

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 7月 2022
Accepted
12 12月 2022
First published
12 1月 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2023,3, 328-337

Development of a microsampler suitable for aerial collection of aerosol particles

M. Cheng, C. Chien, D. E. Graham and A. Harter, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2023, 3, 328 DOI: 10.1039/D2EA00096B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements