AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Separation and Purification of Bacteria from Similar Size Distribution of Polystyrene Latex Particle
ALI MOHAMADI NASRABADI, Jang-Seop Han, Milad Massoudi Farid, Sang Gu Lee, Jungho Hwang, Yonsei University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Abstract Number: 89 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract In this study, we introduced a methodology to separate bacterial and non-bacterial aerosols of similar size due to the difference in their electrical mobilities. In this sense, similar sized Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) and polystyrene latex (PSL) particles were chosen, respectively, as target and non-target particles. By passing these particles through a corona region, S. epidermidis and PSL particles gained different electrical charge values. Since the number of charges obtained by aerosol particles depends on their relative permittivity. The relative permittivity for different kinds of bacteria is around 80 while the relative permittivity for PSL particles and dust is around 2.5. For charging the particles, a pin-cylinder type corona charger was used. By putting charged bacteria and PSL at equal electric field, they can be separated in an electric field due to the difference in their electrical mobility. This method can give a fast, simple, and inexpensive solution for increasing the purity, detecting and counting of bacterial agents in air. Recoveries for PSL and S. epidermidis particles were 55.7% and 35% and Purities for PSL and S. epidermidis were 65.1% and 80.1%. The experimental results of separation revealed the possibility of the real-time separation of between charged bio and none bio particles with having different charge numbers.