To Separate Particulate and Gaseous Constituents of Atmospheric Aerosols

Semi-volatile organic compounds play an important role in the atmosphere. These constituents are involved atmospheric transformation processes, and are an important source of secondary organic aerosols and may play a significant role in the formation of cloud condensation nuclei. Unanswered questions include the relative importance of anthropogenic and biogenic volatile organic emissions to secondary aerosol formation, as well as their global distribution and their contribution to particle growth and hygroscopicity. With current methods it is difficult to accurately separate and sample the gaseous and particulate phases of semi-volatile organic compounds. Proposed here is a new method relying on the physical separation of vapor and particulate constituents based on a condensationally-enhanced particle focusing and concentration into a clean air stream. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Answers to these questions rely on accurately measuring the concentration and the phase partitioning of these compounds. This will be facilitated by more accurate, and hopefully less cumbersome technology for the clean separation of the gaseous and particle phase constituents of ambient aerosols. Further, the technique proposed may also find application in separating cloud droplets and interstitial semivolatile organic compounds