AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Transport Properties of Airborne Nanomaterials
BON KI KU, Pramod Kulkarni, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH
Abstract Number: 487 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Airborne engineered nanomaterials such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), functionalized MWCNT, graphene, fullerene, and silver nanorods were characterized to understand their lung deposition characteristics. These nanomaterials were aerosolized using different generation methods such as electrospray, pneumatic atomization, and dry aerosolization techniques so as to span a range of morphologies of workplace aerosols and to measure diffusional and aerodynamic diameter, fractal dimension, and effective density of nanomaterial aerosols. Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure diffusion and aerodynamic diameters of airborne carbon nanotube and nanomaterial aerosols using tandem mobility-mass measurements. Fractal dimensions and aerodynamic diameter of mobility-classified particles were calculated from particle mass measured using aerosol particle mass analyzer and the mobility diameter. Microscopy analysis using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was performed to obtain morphological descriptors of particles, such as envelop diameter, porosity, aspect ratio, and projected area. The morphological information from the TEM was compared with measured aerodynamic and diffusion diameters of the particles. The results showed that aerodynamic diameter is smaller than mobility diameter for all nanomaterials except silver nanorods. Various equivalent diameters and shape factors for all the materials studied are presented and their implications for lung deposition are discussed.