Electrostatic Precipitation for High Efficient Aerosol Collection into Low Analysis Volumes

New sampling methods are now available and offer greater sample collection efficiency, smaller sample volumes and significantly reduced power consumption in a much more compact design. Technologies such as electrostatic precipitation (EP) have demonstrated over 90% collection efficiency for particles in the 1 to 10 micron size range. EP collectors can be made very small and compact and require less than 10 watts of power to operate allowing for battery operation. The use of EP also allows for very focused concentration, thus producing much smaller sample volumes, on the order of 200 to 300 microliters. These resulting small sample volumes are compatible with new analytical methods require much smaller sample volumes avoiding unnecessary dilution that occurs when particulates are collected into larger sample volumes. The successful demonstration of an EP collector will create a new family of small, low cost, efficient aerosol samplers that can be deployed in a number of field applications. Whether used as stand-alone portable samplers or incorporated into larger systems such as next generation BioWatch, JBPDS or other integrated systems, EP has the promise of more effective sample collection and resulting more sensitive detection.