Yu Kuo-Pin, Chen Yen-Ping, Gong Jia-You, Chen Yen-Chi, Cheng Chih-Ching
Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Li-Nong Street, Taipei 11221, Taiwan, ROC.
J Aerosol Sci. 2016 Nov;101:133-143. doi: 10.1016/j.jaerosci.2016.08.002. Epub 2016 Aug 16.
Liquid impingers are utilized to collect bioaerosols for many advantages, such as avoiding dehydration of biological agents. However, many previous studies have reported that the liquid impingers are surprisingly inefficient for the collection of ultrafine bioaerosols, with collection efficiencies <30%. In the present work, we have successfully improved the collection efficiency of the liquid impinger (AGI30) to as high as 99% for particles in the size range of 20-400 nm with the aid of packed glass beads. We also systematically investigated the effects of influential factors on the collection efficiency. These factors include the volume of the sampling liquid (0, 20 and 30 mL), depth (0, 7 and 10 cm) of packed glass beads and sampling flow rate (4, 6 and 8 liter per min, lpm). According to our experimental results, increasing the depth of packed glass beads and the volume of sampling liquid can enhance the collection efficiency. Also, decreasing the sampling flow rate can increase the collection efficiency and reduce the loss of sampling liquid. For the sampling of viable MS2 phages, the collection efficiency of AGI30 sampler with packed glass beads is much higher than that without packed glass beads. Conclusively, this study validates that the granular bed filtration can enhance the collection efficiency of liquid impingers for submicron and ultrafine particles and viral aerosols.
液体冲击器因具有诸多优点而被用于收集生物气溶胶，比如可避免生物制剂脱水。然而，许多先前的研究报告称，液体冲击器在收集超细生物气溶胶方面效率出奇地低，收集效率低于30%。在本研究中，我们借助填充玻璃珠成功将液体冲击器（AGI30）对粒径范围为20 - 400纳米颗粒的收集效率提高到了99%。我们还系统地研究了影响因素对收集效率的影响。这些因素包括采样液体的体积（0、20和30毫升）、填充玻璃珠的深度（0、7和10厘米）以及采样流速（每分钟4、6和8升）。根据我们的实验结果，增加填充玻璃珠的深度和采样液体的体积可提高收集效率。此外，降低采样流速可提高收集效率并减少采样液体的损失。对于活的MS2噬菌体的采样，带有填充玻璃珠的AGI30采样器的收集效率远高于没有填充玻璃珠的情况。总之，本研究证实颗粒床过滤可提高液体冲击器对亚微米和超细颗粒以及病毒气溶胶的收集效率。
