Aerosol diffusion battery

Knutson, E.O., A.C. George, L. Hinchliffe, and R. Sextro, Single Screen and Screen Diffusion Battery Method for Measuring Radon Progeny Size Distributions, 1-500 nm, presented to the 1985 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Aerosol Research,... 

An aerosol size distribution can, therefore, be described in terms of the count median diameter, d, and the geometric standard deviation, a These parameters were obtained from experimental data using a diffusion battery method (Busigin et al., 1980). A diffusion battery is an assembly of a number of cylindrical or rectangular channels. The relative penetration of aerosols through different sizes of diffusion batteries at specified flow rates allows the aerosol size distribution to be calculated. 

The activity size distributions were determined from the calculated penetration values in the diffusion batteries using the method outlined for aerosol size measurement (equation (6) for RnWL and equations (8) and (9) for 222Pb concentration). 

The aerosol distributions are calculated in terms of a single mode, without attempting to resolve them into a major large mode and a minor very small (unattached) mode. The unattached mode is very much smaller in diameter (of molecular cluster dimensions) than the major mode of the aerosol and in underground mines its peak height is very small. To resolve such a mode would require more than the three diffusion batteries used for the measurements. 

Reineking, A. and J. Porstendorfer, High-volume Screen Diffusion Batteries and the Alpha Spectroscopy for Measurements of the Radon Daughter Activity Size Distributions in the Environment, J. of Aerosol Science 17 (1986) (accepted for publication). 

Approaching from another direction, Sinclair et al (1978) and Knutson et al (1984) report that diffusion battery measurements of radon daughter aerosol-size distributions often show a small peak which could be interpreted as the unattached fraction. Its position would indicate diffusion coefficients from 0.0005 to 0.05 cm /sec. 

In 1975 there was a new development in the use of wire screens Sinclair and Hoopes (1975) described a diffusion battery (for measuring the particle size of aerosols) made of very fine 635-mesh stainless steel screen. An empirical equation was developed for the collection efficiency. This diffusion battery has become one of the standard techniques in aerosol measurements. Later, Sinclair et al (1978) described a screen diffusion battery configuration suited for measuring the activity - weighted size distribution of radon daughter aerosols. 

Maher, E.F. and N.M. Laird, E.M. Algorithm Reconstruction of Particle Size Distribution from Diffusion Battery Data, J. Aerosol Sci. 16 557-570 (1985). 

Scheibel, H.G. and J. Porstendorfer, Penetration Measurements for Tube and Screen Type Diffusion Battery in Ultrafine Particle Size Range, J. Aerosol Sci. 15 673-679 (1984). 

Sinclair, D., A.C. George, and E.O. Knutson, Application of Diffusion Batteries to Measurement of Submicron Radioactive Aerosols, in Airborne Radioactivity (D.T. Shaw, ed.) American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, IL, pp. 103-114 (1978). 

Particle size distributions of smaller particles have been made using electrical mobility analyzers and diffusion batteries, (9-11) instruments which are not suited to chemical characterization of the aerosol. Nonetheless, these data have made major contributions to our understanding of particle formation mechanisms (1, 1 ). At least two distinct mechanisms make major contributions to the aerosols produced by pulverized coal combustors. The vast majority of the aerosol mass consists of the ash residue which is left after the coal is burned. At the high temperatures in these furnaces, the ash melts and coalesces to form large spherical particles. Their mean diameter is typically in the range 10-20 pm. The smallest particles produced by this process are expected to be the size of the mineral inclusions in the parent coal. Thus, we expect few residual ash particles smaller than a few tenths of a micrometer in diameter (12). 

Raes, F., and A. Reineking, A New Diffusion Battery Design for the Measurement of Sub-20 nm Aerosol Particles The Diffusion Carrousel, Atmos. Environ., 19, 385-388 (1985). 

Three reviews describing applications of diffusion denuders have been published. The doctoral dissertation of Ferm (31) reflects considerable experience with single-tube denuders for the measurement of a variety of species. The review by Ali et al. (32) is extensive it provides an excellent historical and theoretical background and summarizes the literature based on the type of analyte gas determined. The focus of the most recent review, by Cheng (19), is diffusion batteries used for size discrimination of aerosols as well as diffusion denuders. Various physical designs are discussed in some detail in that review. 

Several published works have been devoted to the mathematical solution of the problems of penetration of aerosols through a diffusion battery, which is essentially a bundle of identical circular or rectangular channels in parallel [11]. The deposited matter is characterized only by its diffusion coefficient it means that the derived formulae hold for aerosol particulates, as well as for molecular entities. 

These results can be applied to deposition in sampling tubes and to the design of the diffusion battery, a device used to measure the particle size of submicron aerosols. The... 

In this section, we briefly review three types of instruments, the optical particle counter, electrical aerosol classifier, and diffusion battery. These system.s are based on very dilTerent physical characteristics of the aerosols. The optical counters respond to signals from individual particles. The electrical analyzers depend on the measurement of a current carried by a slreaJTi of cbrnged aerosol particles. The ditfusion battery also depends on the behavior of particle clouds. The system often used to cover the size range from about 10 nm to 10 /jm is a combination of (a) the electrical analyzer up to about 0.2 jum and (b) the optical particle counter over the rest of the range. 

The diffusion battery consists of banks of tubes, channels, or screens through which a submicron aerosol passes at a constant flow rale. Particles deposit on the surface of the battery elements, and the decay in total number concentration along the flow path i measured, usually with a condensation particle counter. The equations of convective diffusion (Chapter 3) can be solved for the rate of deposition as a function of the particle diffusion coefficient. Because the diffusion coefficient is a monotonic function of particle size (Chapter 2), the measured and theoretical deposition curves can be compared to detennine the size for a monodisperse aerosol. 

For a poiydisperse aerosol, the number of particles deposited up to any point in the system can be calculated from the theory for monodisperse aerosols and then integrating over the initial. size distribution, which is the quantity sought- The experimental measure ments made with the condensation nuclei counter gives the number concentration of the poiydisperse aerosol as a function of the distance from the inlet to the diffusion battery. The recovery of the size distribution function from the measured decay In particle concentration can be accomplished in an approximate way. Various numerical schemes based on plausible approximations have been developed to accomplish the inversion (Cheng, 1993). The lower detection limit for the diffusion battery is 2 to 5 nm. Systems are not difficult to build for specific applications or can be purchased commercially. 

Because of their small radius, the size and size distribution (see Subsection 4.3.2) of Aitken particles may be determined with a diffusion battery. This device is composed by an ensemble of capillary tubes, through which the air is drawn at low velocity. As a result of their Brownian diffusion, the smaller aerosol particles are deposited on the walls of the tubes during the aspiration. This particle loss is a function of the diffusion coefficient and consequently of the size of the particles (see equation [4.4]). 

The diffusion battery method for aerosol particle size determination... 

In this manner, some of the influent aerosol particles are removed by the diffusion battery as they travel along the channels, and a fraction F of the influent particles appears in the... 

In the diffusion battery, the gaseous ions are sorbed by the wall of the diffusion tube while en route through it, analogous to the removal of aerosol particles by the battery wall. The fraction penetrating the battery, F, is given by the equation (Townsend, 1900)... 

Thomas, J.W. (1953). The diffusion battery method for aerosol particle size determination. ORNL Report 1648, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 68 pp. 

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