An aerosol electrometer system for measuring ion and aerosol charge using electrostatic detection technique was developed and presented. It consists of a size-selective inlet, a particle charger, an ion trap, a Faraday cup, an electrometer, and a data acquisition and processing system. In this system, an aerosol sample first passes through the size-selective inlet to remove particles outside the measurement size range based on their aerodynamic diameter, and then passes through the unipolar corona charger that sets a charge on the particles and enters the ion trap to remove the free ions. After the ion trap, the charged particles then enter the Faraday cup electrometer for measuring ultra low current of about 1 pA induced by ion and aerosol charge collected on the filter in Faraday cup corresponding to the number concentration of ion and aerosol. Signal current is then recorded and processed by a data acquisition system. Finally, the detailed description of the operating principle of the system as well as the preliminary experimental testing results of ion and aerosol charge measurements were also introduced and discussed.
Hinds WC, Aerosol technology, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, 1999
Intra P, Tippayawong N, Mj. Int. J. Sci. Technol., 1, 120, 2007
Johnson T, Kaufman S, Medved A, 6th Int. ETH Conference Nanoparticle Measurement, Zurich, Switzerland, 19-21 August, 2002
Wei J, Development of a method for measuring surface area concentration of ultrafine particles, D. Eng. Thesis, University of Duisburg -Essen, Germany, 2007
Intra P, Tippayawong N, J. Japan Soc. Applied Electromagnet. Mech., 17, s17, 2009