The diffusion battery method for aerosol particle size determination

The diffusion battery method for aerosol particle size determination 

It is known that health hazards are caused by inhalation of sub-micron aerosol particles. Drinker and Hatch (1936) stated that vast numbers of particles below 0.25-pm radius are generated by industrial processes and they considered this sub-micron aerosol to be quite dangerous. Particles below 0.1-pm radius are too small for direct microscopic observation. Likewise, the standard light scattering techniques cannot be used. Consequently, the methods in use depend on observation of the particles with the ultramlcroscope or electron microscope. 

These methods are tedious and are not suited for use in filter paper efficiency investigations. LaMer et al. (1950) have developed a unique method in which the particles are grown by use of an appropriate solvent, the grown size measured by standard methods and the original size then calculated from the known growth factor. 

Submicrometre aerosols or condensation nuclei in the size range 0.002 to 0.2 pm diameter are most readily measured for number concentration and size distribution by diffusion bat- 

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 

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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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