Loss of Fine Airborne Particles Flowing through the Tubes of Different Materials

Abstract

Long-term exposure to airborne particles may cause potential damage to human health. Until now, many monitoring instruments have been developed, but the loss of airborne particles within the measurement systems has rarely been mentioned. This work was to investigate the loss of particles (10~487nm) when they flowed through stainless, Nylon, Teflon and Tygon tubes, respectively, with carrier gas. Number concentrations of the airborne particles were observed with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS). Results show that the difference of the size distribution of particles that were generated by electrically heating and flowed through stainless, Nylon and Teflon tubes was less significant, but the number concentrations were all higher than that through Tygon one. While monitoring indoor airborne particles, no significant particle loss could be observed no matter what tube we used. Tube hardness and the temperature of the carrier gas are considered to be two important factors that influence the losses of airborne particles.