AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Vibrational Spectra of Individual Dust Particles Obtained from the International Space Station and New York 9/11 Disaster
ANTRIKSH LUTHRA, Aruna Ravi, James Coe, The Ohio State University
Abstract Number: 513 Working Group: Linking Aerosols with Public Health in a Changing World
Abstract The concentration of dust particles inhaled into people's lungs is correlated with public health. Particles of the size range 2-5 microns are amongst the biggest by volume that get through to the lungs, hence characterizing their chemical composition is important. This research focuses on IR spectroscopic analysis to characterize the individual dust particles collected from the International Space Station and New York 9/11 disaster (~1 mile away from ground zero). These particles are trapped in the holes of a plasmonic metal mesh (12.6 microns square lattice and 5 microns hole size). This allows us to take scatter-free infrared absorption spectra whose peaks provide an insight on the identity of infrared active components. The study of single dust particles provides non-destructive chemical information of not only the major components, but also of minority components. This information is different and complimentary to the analysis of bulk samples.