An affordable, water-based, community condensation particle counter

A "Community Condensation Particle Counter" (cCPC) has been developed to provide an affordable monitor of airborne particle number concentrations. The cCPC is an expansion-type condensation particle counter that incorporates single particle counting to yield a direct measurement of number...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aerosol science and technology Vol. 59; no. 12; pp. 1475 - 1485
Main Authors: Hering, Susanne V., Amanatidis, Stavros, Eiguren-Fernandez, Arantzazu, Lewis, Gregory S., Spielman, Steven R., Pariseau, David
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Taylor & Francis 02.12.2025
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Aerosol sampling
Air sampling
Kihong Park
Particle counters
Radiation counters
Sampling
ISSN:0278-6826, 1521-7388
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A "Community Condensation Particle Counter" (cCPC) has been developed to provide an affordable monitor of airborne particle number concentrations. The cCPC is an expansion-type condensation particle counter that incorporates single particle counting to yield a direct measurement of number concentration. Particle number concentrations are derived from the detection of individual droplets exiting the cell during the expansion, combined with the pressure readings and the physical volume of the particle cell. Modeling and experiment confirm detection of particles as small as 4 nm, with >95% detection above 20 nm. For 12 d of ambient sampling two collocated cCPCs exhibit a pooled standard deviation of 3.5%. Comparison to a pair of benchtop instruments (ADI MAGIC CPCs) yields a correlation of R 2 = 0.98 and a regression slope of 1.1. Laboratory studies at concentrations higher than 3 × 10 4  cm −3 for both sulfate and dioctyl sebacate show equally reduced response when compared to a versatile water CPC, but this was not observed in ambient aerosol sampling. Further research will be needed to resolve this discrepancy.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0278-6826
1521-7388
DOI:10.1080/02786826.2025.2506707