• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.476-482
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• 2012

Asian dust particles are known to have sizes ranging from a few nanometers up to about a few micrometers. The environmental and health effects depend on the size of the dust particles. The smaller, the farther they are transported, and the deeper they penetrate into the human respiratory system. Sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF) provides separation of nano to microparticles using a combination of centrifugal force and parabolic laminar flow in a channel. In this study, the steric mode of SdFFF (Sd/StFFF) was tested for size-based separation and characterization of Asian dust particles. Various SdFFF experimental parameters including flow rate, stop-flow time and field strength of the centrifugal field were optimized for the size analysis of Asian dust. The Sd/StFFF calibration curve showed a good linearity with $R^2$ value of 0.9983, and results showed an excellent capability of Sd/StFFF for a size-based separation of micron-sized particles.The optical microscopy (OM) was also used to study the size and the shape of the dust particles. The size distributions of the samples collected during a thick dust period were shifted towards larger sizes than those of the samples collected during thin dust periods. It was also observed that size distribution of the sample collected during dry period shifts further towards larger sizes than that of the samples collected during raining period, suggesting the sizes of the dust particle decrease during raining periods as the components adsorbed on the surface of the dust particles were removed by the rain water. Results show Sd/StFFFis a useful tool for size characterization of environmental particles such as the Asian dust.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.613-618
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• 2007

Pollens are known to be an allergen. They penetrate human respiratory system, triggering a type of seasonal allergic rhinitis called pollen allergy (hey fever). The purpose of this study is to test two field-flow fractionation (FFF) techniques, gravitational FFF (GrFFF) and sedimentation FFF (SdFFF), for their applicability to sizecharacterization of micron-sized pollens. Both GrFFF and SdFFF are elution techniques, providing sequential elution of particles based on size. They allow the size distribution as well as the mean size of the sample to be determined from the elution time. In this study, GrFFF and SdFFF were used to determine the size distribution of Paper Mulberry and Bermuda Grass pollens. For the Paper Mulberry pollen, the mean size obtained by GrFFF is 12.7 μm, and agrees rather well with the OM data with the relative error of 8.0%. For the Bermuda Grass pollen, the mean size obtained by GrFFF is 32.6 μm with the relative error of 12.3%. The mean sizes determined by SdFFF are 12.4 (relative error = 10.1%) and 27.1 μm (relative error = 5.2%) for the Paper Mulberry and the Bermuda Grass pollen, respectively. Although SdFFF tends to yield more accurate size distribution due to lower band broadening under the field strength higher than 1 G, the sizes determined by GrFFF were not significantly different from those by SdFFF.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.159-164
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• 2013

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1172-1176
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• 2003

This study aims to investigate the applicability of Sd/StFFF and to develop a method for size characterization of urban airborne particles, focusing primarily on particles larger than about 1 mm. It was found that the airborne concentration vary with time, although no particular seasonal trend was observed. When averaged over time, the airborne concentration was the lowest in the park areas with 99 ㎍/m³. The apartment, industrial, and central city area showed similar levels of the airborne concentrations with 166, 170, and 171 ㎍/m³, respectively. The housing area showed the highest airborne concentration with 201 μg/m³ among all tested areas. A power-programmed Sd/StFFF was used for size analysis of airborne particles with the initial field strength of 300 rpm, $t_a$ = 4, $t_i$ = -16, p = 8, and the flow rate of 7 mL/min. It was found that urban airborne samples were mostly populated by particles having diameters between about 5 to 20 ㎛, although all have broad size distributions ranging up to about 50 ㎛. Under the Sd/StFFF condition used in this study, no significant differences were found in size distributions among the airborne particles collected at different urban sites, and also among those collected at different times.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2015

CdS-QD particles are a nano-sized semiconducting crystal that emits light. Their optical properties show great potential in many areas of applications such as disease-diagnostic reagents, optical technologies, media industries and solar cells. The wavelength of emitting light depends on the particle size and thus the quality control of CdS-QD particle requires accurate determination of the size distribution. In this study, CdS-QD particles were synthesized by a simple ${\gamma}$-ray irradiation method. As a particle stabilizer polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were added. In order to determine the size and size distribution of the CdS-QD particles, sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF) was employed. Effects of carious parameters including the the flow rate, external field strength, and field programming conditions were investigated to optimize SdFFF for analysis of CdS-QD particles. The Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis show the primary single particle size was ~4 nm, TEM images indicate that the primarty particles were aggregated to form secondary particles having the mean size of about 159 nm. As the concentration of the stabilizer increases, the particle size tends to decrease. Mean size determined by SdFFF, TEM, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were 126, 159, and 152 nm, respectively. Results showed SdFFF may become a useful tool for determination of the size and its distribution of various types of inorganic particles.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.429-434
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• 2011

In this study, a wet-sampler was developed for collection in water and simultaneous fractionation of micron-sized particles (e.g., pigment, airborne, etc.). In this new device, three cylinders (partially filled with water) through which air was forced to pass for sample collection are connected in a series. Particles of different sizes are collected in different cylinders, allowing simultaneous fractionation. An uniqueness of this new device is that it does not use any membrane filter. Microparticles are collected directly in cylinders filled partially with water. Also the particles are simultaneously fractionated within this device while they are being collected. The new device was employed for collection of airborne particles. The collected airborne particles were fractionated by using sedimentation field-flow fractionation, SdFFF), and observed with an optical microscopy (OM) for size and shape analysis. Also AAS and ICP-AES were used for composition analysis of the airborne particles. It is expected that the new device is applicable to collection and analysis of size distribution of various types of microparticles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2014

Accurate analysis of fly ash particles is not trivial because of complex nature in physical and chemical properties. SPLITT fractionation (SF) was employed to fractionate the fly ash particles into subpopulations in large quantities. Then the SF-fractions were analyzed by the steric mode of sedimentation field-flow fractionation (Sd/StFFF) for size analysis. The SF-fractions were also analyzed by ICP-OES. The results showed that the fly ash is mainly composed of Fe, Ca, Mg and Mn. No particular trends were observed between the particle size and the concentrations of Fe, Ca, Mg, while Mn, Cu and Zn were in higher concentrations in smaller particles. Sample preparation procedures were established, where the fly ash particles were sieved to remove large contaminants, and then washed with acetone to remove organics on the surface of particles. The sample preparation and analysis methods developed in this study could be applied to other environmental particles.