10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Development and Application of a New Palm-Sized Optical PM2.5 Sensor
TOMOKI NAKAYAMA, Yutaka Matsumi, ISEE, Nagoya University
Abstract Number: 1100 Working Group: Low-Cost and Portable Sensors
Abstract Aerosol particles have important roles in the earth’s climate and air quality. It has been recognized that fine particulate matter, such as PM2.5, negatively impacts human health through heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and this results in the premature mortality of many people. The PM2.5 is expected to be heterogeneously distributed in both indoor and outdoor atmospheres because of its many direct emission sources and secondary formation processes. High-density multipoint observations are needed to understand the source, transport, and sink of PM2.5 and its effects on climate, air quality, and human health. The development and application of a low-cost palm-sized PM2.5 sensor, which can measure PM2.5 mass concentrations precisely and accurately, is important to achieve high-density multi-point observations. A palm-sized PM2.5 sensor with low power consumption and high temporal resolution can also be applied to mobile measurements for personal exposure studies and to airborne measurements using balloon sonde and unmanned aircraft.
We have developed a new palm-sized optical PM2.5 sensor with Panasonic cooperation. The PM2.5 mass concentration was calculated from the distribution of light scattering intensity by considering relationship between scattering intensity and particle size. The results of laboratory tests suggested that the sensor can detect particles with diameters as small as ~0.3 µm. The performance of the PM2.5 sensor was evaluated by comparing the obtained data with corresponding data from large beta-attenuation monitor (BAM) instruments in many places. As results, good agreement between our PM2.5 sensor and BAM instrument was observed. This sensor has been applied to the observation in eight Asian countries. We have also developed a personal exposure measurement system, consisting of the PM2.5 sensor and a smartphone. The obtained PM2.5 and GPS position data are automatically transferred to a cloud server. We are planning to apply this system to personal exposure monitoring studies in developing countries.
Reference T. Nakayama, Y. Matsumi, K. Kawahito, and Y. Watabe, Development and evaluation of a palm-sized optical PM2.5 sensor, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 52, 2-12 (2018).