AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Combined Processes of Aerosol-to-Hydrosol Sampling and ATP Bioluminescence Assay for Real-time Bioaerosol Monitoring
JI-WOON PARK, Hyeong Rae Kim, Jungho Hwang, Yonsei University, Korea
Abstract Number: 31 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract We present a methodology of continuous and real-time bioaerosol monitoring by integrating an aerosol-to-hydrosol sampler and a bioluminescence detector. For performance test, air flow containing lab-generated test bacteria (Staphylococcus epidermidis) was supplied through the inlet of the sampler. A high voltage was applied between the discharge electrode and the ground electrode of the sampler to generate air ions by corona discharge. The bacteria aerosols were charged by air ions and sampled on the flowing liquid which contained cell-lysis buffer solution and ATP bioluminescence reagents. While the liquid was delivered to the bioluminescence detector, sampled bacteria were dissolved by the cell-lysis buffer solution and ATPs were extracted from the bacteria. Subsequently, the ATPs were reacted with the ATP bioluminescence reagents and then light was emitted. When experiments were carried out in a mode of changing the concentration of bacteria aerosols, the ATP bioluminescence signal (expressed as relative light unit, RLU) well followed the concentration (expressed as particles per unit air volume, #/cm^3) variation of the aerosols which was measured by an aerosol particle sizer. The response time required altogether for aerosol sampling and ATP bioluminescence was under 30 seconds when the air sampling flow rate was 8 lpm and the liquid sampling flow rate was 800 μlpm. Our methodology will be used to trigger an alarm for biological air contamination.