Possibilities and limitations of the photoelectric aerosol sensor array applied to heavy metal aerosols

The technique of substance-selective aerosol charging by photoelectron emission was applied to several ultrafine heavy metal aerosols. To enhance the selectivity of the Photoelectric Aerosol Sensor (PAS), an array operating with four different wavelengths (185 nm, 214 nm, 229 nm, 254 nm) was used. The photoelectric activity at each wave-length and the linearity of the PAS signal was investigated for monodisperse and quasi-polydisperse systems. The aerosol mass concentration was determined by correlation with atomic absorption spectroscopy measurements of filter samples. Pattern recognition was applied to differentiate between four different aerosol systems and to identify common interferences.