Clemente A, Lobera MP, Balas F, Santamaria J. A versatile generator of nanoparticle aerosols. A novel tool in environmental and occupational exposure assessment.
Sci Total Environ 2018;
625:978-986. [PMID:
29306835 DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.125]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2017] [Revised: 11/23/2017] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The increasing presence of nanotechnology on the market entails a growing probability of finding ENMs in the environment. Nanoparticles aerosols are a yet unknown risk for human and environmental exposure that may normally occur at any point during the nanomaterial lifecycle. There is a research gap in standardized methods to assess the exposure to airborne nanoparticles in different environments. The controllable generation of nanoparticle aerosols has long been a challenging objective for researchers and industries dealing with airborne nanoparticles. In this work, a versatile system to generate nanoparticulate aerosols has been designed. The system allows the production of both i) instantaneous nanoparticle clouds and ii) continuous nanoparticle streams with quasi-stable values of particle concentration and size distribution. This novel device uses a compressed-air pressure pulse to disperse the target material into either the testing environment (instantaneous cloud formation) or a secondary chamber, from which a continuous aerosol stream can be drawn, with a tunable nanoparticle concentration. The system is robust, highly versatile and easy to operate, enabling reproducible generation of aerosols from a variety of sources. The system has been verified with four dry nanomaterials: TiO2, ZnO, CuO and CNT bundles.
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