AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Further Development of a Passive Bioaerosol Sampler Using Ferroelectric Polymer
JENNIFER THERKORN, Jerry Scheinbeim, Gediminas Mainelis, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Abstract Number: 402 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract A passive bioaerosol sampler can reduce costs of field sampling campaigns and provide finer spatiotemporal sampling resolution than what is currently achievable with active samplers. Here we report on further development of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based passive bioaerosol sampler – the first passive bioaerosol sampler using a pair of polarized ferroelectric polymer films to electrostatically attract airborne particles. PVDF is a ferroelectric polymer, which has been permanently polarized by application of an external electric field. Using 3D printed lattices, particle collection efficiency of parallel-oriented sets of PVDF were tested using air channel spacing of 1, 3, 5 and 7 mm versus control materials. A slurry of Arizona Road Dust in water was aerosolized using 3-jet Collison nebulizer to produce polydisperse particles in size ranges of interest for viral, bacterial and fungal microbes. Tests were done with aerosol exhibiting Boltzmann charge equilibrium and with aerosol having charge similar to that reported in the literature for indoor/outdoor bioaerosol. With 3 mm air channels, PVDF had higher collection efficiency than controls: 25 – 50% for highly charged particles ranging in size from 14 to 5000 nm. For charge neutralized aerosol particles of the same size, PVDF consistently provided 25 – 30% collection efficiency with no significant difference from controls suggesting both electrostatic and mechanical collection mechanisms at work. PVDF lattices were also used to capture airborne 2 and 5 micrometer fluorescent polystyrene latex particles and the location of collected particles on the surface of PVDF was determined by microscopy; compared to non-polarized materials, results suggest that PVDF may provide significantly improved collection of bioaerosol particles in PM2.5 range with uniform deposition of collected particles across the PVDF surface. Next, field sampling will be performed in agricultural and office settings to compare bioaerosol collection performance of PVDF to that of other passive aerosol samplers and active filter samplers.