A laboratory study of the performance of the handheld diffusion size classifier (DiSCmini) for various aerosols in the 15–400 nm range

Abstract

In addition to chemical composition, particle concentration and size are among the main parameters used to characterize exposure to airborne ultrafine or nanoparticles. To assess occupational inhalation exposure, real-time instruments are recommended in recent strategies published. Among portable devices for personal exposure assessment in the workplace, DiSCmini (Matter Aerosol AG, Switzerland) has been identified as a potential candidate with its capacity to measure the airborne nanoparticle concentration and average particle size with good time-resolution. Monodisperse and polydisperse test nanoaerosols of varying compositions and morphologies were produced in the laboratory using the CAIMAN facility. These aerosols covered a range of particle sizes between 15 and 400 nm and number concentrations from 700 to 840,000 cm(-3). The aerosols were used to investigate the behavior of DiSCmini, comparing experimental data to reference data. In spite of a slight tendency to underestimate particle size, all particle diameters, number concentrations and surface area concentrations measured were in the same order of magnitude as reference data. Furthermore, no significant effect due to particle composition or morphology was noted.

Accuracy of electrical aerosol sensors measuring lung deposited surface area concentrations

“…The charging efficiency of unipolar diffusion chargers has been reported to be proportional to the particle diameter to a power of e.g. 1.034 (Bau, Jacoby, & Witschger, 2012), 1.099 (Bau, Zimmermann, Payet, & Witschger, 2015), 1.11 (Fierz, Burtscher, Steigmeier, & Kasper, 2007), 1.125 (Fierz, Houle, Steigmeier, & Burtscher, 2011) and 1.13 (Jung & Kittelson, 2005;Asbach et al, 2011). The size dependence ( $d p 1.13 ) of the charging efficiency is also shown in Fig.…”

“…In the past Bau et al (2015) conducted a very thorough study on the performance of the DiSCmini. They used a variety of monodisperse and polydisperse particles with sizes between 15 and 400 nm with various concentration levels and different morphologies.…”

Development and Validation of a UAV Based System for Air Pollution Measurements

“…It is used to measure the number of particles with diameters ranging between 10 and 500 nm, with a time resolution of 1 s (Supplementary Material, Table S1) and an experimentally tested response time of 7.3 s [14]. The DISCmini can measure a concentration range from about 10 3 to over 10 6 p/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$, based on the electrical charging of the aerosols.…”

Performance study of portable devices for the real-time measurement of airborne particle number concentration and size (distribution)

“…To avoid artifacts due to coarse particles, the DiSCmini is equipped with an inlet separator with a cutoff diameter of 700 nm. This device has previously been studied in laboratory conditions [30][31][32][33] as well as in field conditions [34][35][36]. In this study, ten specimens of DiSCmini were challenged by the different test aerosols.…”