AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
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Raman Spectra of Individual Bioaerosol Particles in the Laboratory Using the Resource Effective Bio-Identification System (REBS)
JACQUELINE MERLE, Nicole Savage, David Doughty, Steven Hill, J. Alex Huffman, University of Denver, CO
Abstract Number: 787 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Airborne particles of biological origins can cause problems for respiratory health and are thought to impact a variety of environmental systems. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements (e.g. WIBS or UV-APS) have been frequently deployed to investigate properties of bioaerosols on a single-particle basis, but provide relatively weak ability to differentiate between particle types. LIF instruments also face issues with certain kinds of weakly fluorescing materials that can add interference to investigations of biological aerosols. The Resource Effective Bio-Identification System (REBS) uses Raman micro-spectroscopy for the rapid chemical and size characterization of individual aerosol particles, providing detailed information about particle composition. The REBS can be operated to sample particles from the air and to automatically collect Raman spectra of impacted particles. The instrument offers the ability to differentiate particle types much more finely than LIF instruments and bioaerosol particles are reported by the manufacturer (Battelle) to be identifiable at the biological species level.
Several species of fungal spores were grown on agar plates and aerosolized. Raman spectra of these and several other aerosol materials were analyzed using the REBS. Initial results will be shown in comparison with complementary data outputs from the WIBS instrument as an example of a commercial LIF technique for bioaerosol detection.