Air quality monitoring
We have the capability to measure PM mass and number in outdoor and indoor locations.
Measuring particle mass
We have a number of different pieces for equipment designed to measure PM2.5, PM10 and further subdivided mass ranges. These include:
Partisol instruments (2000-H and 2000-S) to measure PM2.5 or PM10. These are low volume instruments which operate at a flow rate of 16.7 l/min. By weighing on our Sartorius analytical balance (precision 1 μg) before and after sampling it means that collected mass can be calculated. Particles are collected onto 47mm diameter filters which can then be used for further analyses, e.g. EDXRF.
Staplex HiVol instruments to measure PM10. These are high volume instruments that collect particles onto large rectangular filters which can be used for further analyses including GC-MS.
Personal Sioutas cascade impactors to measure size-segregated PM10. These small impactors can be worn on the body with an air pump that works at 9 l/min. PM10 is subdivided into 5 size fractions, each collected on different filters (25 mm and 37 mm). By weighing on our Sartorius analytical balance (precision 1 μg) before and after sampling it means that collected mass can be calculated.
Measuring particle number
We have instruments designed to measure total particle number concentration (PNC) and size-segregated PNC:
Lighthouse handheld size-segregated PNC instrument measures the number concentration of particles between 300 nm and 10 μm in up to 6 size fractions simultaneously.
Brechtel Mixing Condensation Particle Counter (MCPC) 1710 for the measurement of total PNC in the size range 5.5 nm – 10 μm. It features a fast response time of 180 ms and can measure concentrations up to 180,000 cm3.