We present a portable, inexpensive, and accurate microelectromechanical-system-based (MEMS-based) condensation particle counter (CPC) for sensitive and precise monitoring of airborne ultrafine particles (UFPs) at a point of interest. A MEMS-based CPC consists of two main parts: a MEMS-based condensation chip that grows UFPs to micro-sized droplets and a miniature optical particle counter (OPC) that counts single grown droplets with the light scattering method. A conventional conductive cooling-type CPC is miniaturized through MEMS technology and three-dimensional (3-D) printing techniques; the essential elements for growing droplets are integrated on a single glass slide. Our system is much more compact (75mm×130mm×50mm), lightweight (205g), and power-efficient (2.7W) than commercial CPCs. In quantitative experiments, the results indicated that our system could detect UFPs with a diameter of 12.9nm by growing them to micro-sized (3.1μm) droplets. Our system measured the UFP number concentration with high accuracy (mean difference within 4.1%), and the number concentration range for which our system can count single particles is 7.99–6850cm?3. Thus, our system has the potential to be used for UFP monitoring in various environments (e.g., as an air filtration system, in high-precision industries utilizing clean rooms, and in indoor and outdoor atmospheres).
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