AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Development of a Low-cost Fluorescence Spectrometer for the Analysis of Primary Biological Aerosols
BENJAMIN E. SWANSON, Donald R. Huffman, J. Alex Huffman, University of Denver
Abstract Number: 704 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP), such as pollen, fungal spores, bacteria and their byproducts, are a ubiquitous presence in the atmosphere and are related to a variety of human health and environmental effects. Most bioparticles contain biological fluorophores which can be detected by utilizing fluorescence spectroscopy, even without the use of fluorescent strains. Previous work has shown that broad categories of bioparticles can be differentiated based on fluorescence fingerprints. We describe a novel, low-cost instrument to acquire both elastic and inelastic (fluorescent) scattering spectra from individual supermicron-size particles in a multi-particle collection on a microscope slide (Huffman et al., 2016). The poster will describe the current state of instrument development, as well as introduce its potential use for analysis of bioaerosols such as pollen and fungal spores.
Huffman, D. R., Swanson, B. E., and Huffman, J. A.: A Wavelength Dispersive Instrument for Characterizing Fluorescence and Scattering Spectra of Individual Aerosol Particles on a Substrate, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., 2016, 1-21, 2016.