INVESTIGATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AEROSOL BY ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY

摘要

We have been successful in imaging environmental aerosol particles by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The material under investigation was rural aerosol collected with an 11-stage low-pressure impactor. On polyester substrates, particles smaller than 20 mn could be observed. From the AFM data, size distributions have been determined and compared with the expected performance of the used cascade impactor. The mean particle sizes (aerodynamic equivalent diameter) were in good agreement with the values derived from AFM experiments. Moreover, we have obtained atomically resolved images on single aerosol particles; to our knowledge, this is the first time this has been accomplished on environmental samples. AFM images of larger impactor stages showed good agreement with light and electron microscopy micrographs.