Dust Generator for Inhalation Studies with Limited Amounts of Archived Particulate Matter

摘要

A novel design for a dry-aerosol generator that efficiently produces a well-dispersed dust suspension using small quantities of a PM_(2.5)-enriched powder sample is described.The motivation to develop a highly efficient dry-aerosol particle generator was to facilitate collaborative projects that combine in vitro cell culture experiments and multiday inhalation exposures using a single batch of well-characterized particles.Premixing of the test particles with larger diameter glass beads permits delivery of aerosol concentrations from 100-1000mug/m~3 to an exposure chamber using only milligram quantities of the test powder per hour.Examination of exposure chamber filter samples by scanning electron microscopy showed well-dispersed particles of the test powder free of glass spheres or fragments.Data are presented from experiments using coal fly ash as the test powder to illustrate the system performance.