• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.93-97
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• 2014

Condensation particle counter (CPC) has been one of the most important basic instrument for measuring number concentration of submicron aerosols. The principle of the CPC is to expose aerosols to a supersaturated vapor and cool down which causes adiabatic expansion. The particles grow by heterogenous nucleation to a sufficient size for easy detection by optical method. However, for growth by condensation, CPC essentially needs both saturater and condensor causing a heavy system. Therefore, it is hard to install commercial CPC to tethered balloon package system. In this study, we developed customized CPC for tethered balloon package system called Hy-CPC which is lighter and smaller in structure than commercial CPCs, and evaluated activation efficiency and detection efficiency by Hy-CPC using electrostatic method (electrometer and Faraday cup).

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.619-630
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• 2014

Two butanol-based Condensation Particle Counters (CPC 3022, CPC 3025), three water-based CPCs (CPC3781, CPC3785${\times}$2), a Gardner Counter, a Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (FMPS), and an Aerosol Electrometer (AE) were deployed to measure the number concentrations from atomized aerosol under six different conditions. Comparisons of particle number concentrations measured by the CPCs, FMPS, and AE were conducted to evaluate the performance of the each CPCs using laboratory generated artificial particles such as NaCl, succinic acid ($C_4H_6O_4$), and particles generated by propane torch & heat gun in the chamber. Good correlation between the CPC3025 and FMPS was observed for the total particle number concentrations in the size range 15 nm to 90 nm. In addition, this paper suggests that photometric mode in water-based CPC3785 could not be used as quantitative of number concentrations for CPC3785.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.315-323
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• 2004

An electrical cascade impactor is a multi-stage impaction device to separate airborne particles into aerodynamic size classes using particle charging and electrical detection techniques. A Faraday cage and an aerosol charger, which are basic components of the electrical cascade impactor, were designed and evaluated in this study. The low-level current response of the Faraday cage was investigated with changing particle size and air flow rate by using sodium chloride (NaCl) particles. The response of the prototype Faraday cage was very similar to that of a commercial aerosol electrometer (TSI model 3068) within ${\pm}$5% for singly-charged particles. The response linearity of the prototype Faraday cage could be extended up to flow rate of 30 L/min. For the performance evaluation of the aerosol charger the monodisperse liquid dioctyl sebacate (DOS) particles, with diameters of 0.1∼0.8$\mu\textrm{m}$, were generated using spraying from an atomizer followed by evaporation-condensation process. Typical performance parameters of the aerosol charger such as P$.$n, wall loss, and elementary charges per particle were evaluated. The performance of the prototype aerosol charger was found to be close to that of the aerosol charger used in an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI, Dekati).

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.163-167
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• 2014

Particle number portable emission measurement system (PN-PEMS) is an instrument for measuring number concentration of automobile exhaust. The principle of some pre-existing commercial PN-PEMS is to charge particles and display the number of particles by measuring current. However, this method has some problems for measuring exhaust. In this study, to solve these issues, we have developed a single particle counting PN-PEMS based condensation particle counter (CPC). The PN-PEMS based CPC does not affect driving conditions and it is convenient for mobile because the instrument is small and light in structure. We evaluated counting efficiency of PN-PEMS based CPC by using electrostatic method (electrometer and Faraday cup).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.753-759
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• 2000

Photoelectric charging is a very efficient way of charging small particles. This method can be applied to combustion measurement, electrostatic precipitator, metal separation and control of micro-contamination. To understand the photoelectric charging mechanism, particle charging of silver by exposure to ultraviolet is investigated in this study. Average charges and charge distributions are measured at various conditions, using two differential mobility analyzers, a condensation nucleus counter, and an aerosol electrometer. The silver particles are generated in a spark discharge aerosol generator. After that process, the generated particles are charged in the photoelectric charger using low-pressure mercury lamp that emits ultraviolet having wavelength 253.7 nm. The results show that ultra-fine particles are highly charged by the photoelectric charging. The average charges linearly increase with increasing particle size and the charge distribution change with particle size. These results are discussed by comparison with previous experiments and proposed equations. It is assumed that the coefficient of electron emission probability is affected by initial charge. The results also show that the charge distribution of a particle is dependent on initial charge. Single changed particle, uncharged particle and neutralized particle are compared. The differences of charge distribution in each case increase with increasing particle size.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.826-833
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• 2004

Cascade impactors are widely used to collect size classified aerosol. A major disadvantage of this instrument is the required long sampling time. Electrical low pressure impactor has been developed to overcome this disadvantage and to achieve real-time measurements on the particle size distribution. The instrument consists primarily of a corona charger, low pressure cascade impactor and multi channel electrometer. We designed and evaluated the performance of a potable 3-stage low pressure impactor using an electrical method. For the calibration of the impactor, monodispersed particles were generated using evaporation-condensation method followed by electrostatic classification using a DMA(Differential Mobility Analyzer). The collection efficiency curves of the stages can be determined by analysing the fraction of particles collected by each stage.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.2 s.245
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• pp.186-192
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• 2006

We applied a new charging system using the condensation and evaporation method to charge the submicron particles with a uniform charging performance. The monodispersed NaCl submicron particles were condensed by n-butanol vapor and grew up to micron droplets with a same size, regardless of their initial size. Those condensed droplets were charged in an indirect corona charger. The indirect corona charger consisted of the ion generation zone and the particle charging zone. In the ion generation zone, Ions were generated by corona discharge and some of them moved into the particle charging zone by a carrier gas and mixed with the condensed droplet. And finally, the charged and condensed droplets dried through an evaporator to shrink to their original size. The average charge and penetration rate of the particles before and after evaporation were measured by CPC and aerosol electrometer and compared with those of a conventional corona charger. The results showed that the average charge was $5\~7$ charges and the penetration rate was over $90\%$, regardless of the initial particle size.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.501-509
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• 2004

Unipolar diffusion charging of non-spherical particles was investigated for various particle shapes. We researched with TiO$_2$agglomerates produced by the thermal decomposition of titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) vapor. TTIP was converted into TiO$_2$, in the furnace reactor and was subsequently introduced into the sintering furnace. Increasing the temperature in the sintering furnace, aggregates were restructured into higher fractal dimensions. The aggregates were classified according to their mobility using a differential mobility analyzer. The projection area and the mass fractal dimension of particles were measured with an image processing technique performed by using transmission electron microscope (TEM) photograph. The selected aggregates were charged by the indirect photoelectric-charger and the average number of charges per particle was measured by an aerosol electrometer and a condensation particle counter. For the particles of same mobility diameter, our results showed that the particle charge quantity decreases as the sintering temperature increases. This result is understandable because particles with lower fractal dimension have larger capacitance and geometric surface area.