Authors: Iida, Kenjiro¹; Stolzenburg, Mark¹; McMurry, Peter¹; Smith, James²; Quant, Frederick³; Oberreit, Derek³; Keady, Patricia³; Eiguren-Fernandez, Arantza⁴; Lewis, Gregory⁵; Kreisberg, Nathan⁵; Hering, Susanne⁵

Source: Aerosol Science and Technology, Volume 42, Number 10, October 2008 , pp. 862-871(10)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

Abstract:

An ultrafine, water-based condensation particle counter (U-WCPC, TSI Model 3786) has been compared to a butanol-based ultrafine counter (U-BCPC, TSI Model 3025) for measurement of atmospheric and freeway-tunnel aerosols. The U-WCPC utilizes a warm, wet-walled growth tube to activate and grow particles through water condensation in a laminar-flow. It has an aerosol sampling rate of 0.3 L/min, and a nominal detection limit near 3 nm. Several field comparisons were made to the butanol-based instrument with the same nominal detection limit. For measurements of size-selected aerosols with diameters of 5 nm and larger the two instruments generally agreed, with a mean response within 5%. At 3 nm particle size differences were observed, and these differences varied with the data set. Measurements of ambient aerosol in Boulder, Colorado showed higher counting efficiency at 3 nm with the U-BCPC, while in a California freeway tunnel the opposite trend was observed, with higher counting efficiencies at 3 nm observed by the U-WCPC. For direct measurement of atmospheric aerosols, the two types of instruments yielded equivalent concentrations, independent of particle number concentration.

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Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02786820802339579

Affiliations: 1: Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 2: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA 3: Quant Technologies LLC, Blaine, Minnesota, USA 4: University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA 5: Aerosol Dynamics Inc., Berkeley, California, USA

Publication date: 2008-10-01

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