Development of an openable small cyclone for atmospheric particulate matter sampling for toxicological experiments

Abstract

The chemical components and mechanisms underlying the toxicity and adverse health effects of particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere have not been fully elucidated. After designing a small, openable, stainless steel cyclone to collect PM samples effectively in powder form for use in toxicological experiments, we evaluated its performance. We compared it with a commercially available aluminum cyclone of similar dimensions, but which is unopenable. The aerodynamic cutoff diameter of the openable cyclone was found by experimentation to be approximately 0.2 µm at a flow rate of 90 L min⁻¹, which is comparable to the unopenable commercial cyclone. The sampling yields, representing the fraction of obtained sample mass relative to the total mass of PM with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) drawn into the sampler, were approximately 1.3 times higher, on average, for the openable cyclone than for the unopenable cyclone. The openable design of the cyclone might contribute to a marked increase in the finally obtained amounts of PM samples. Analyses of metal concentrations in the PM samples collected simultaneously using the stainless steel openable cyclone and aluminum unopenable cyclone suggest that the stainless steel cyclone is less likely than the aluminum cyclone to cause sample contamination from its material. The openable cyclone developed for this study facilitates the effective collection of powder-form PM samples suitable for use in toxicological experiments.

EDITOR:

• Vishal Verma

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to K. Watanabe for metal machining, to A. Suizu for IC analysis, and to the Seikan Kensa Center Inc. for ICP-MS analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JST CREST [JPMJCR19H3], the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA) [JPMEERF20165051 and JPMEERF20205007], JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP20K20614, JP22K19851, JP23H03149, and JP23KK0195, the Keio Leading-edge Laboratory Science and Technology Specified Research Projects, Tokyo Dylec Corp., and the Amano Institute of Technology.