Patent ID: 8970840
Filing Date: 2015-03-03
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for collecting and analyzing particles of a flow of aerosol, the method comprising: providing a housing having an inlet area and an outlet area, the housing further having a collection and analysis area interconnecting the inlet area with the outlet area, a flow path for an aerosol being defined from the inlet area, through the collection and analysis area, and out the outlet area; providing a collection electrode having a tip disposed in the flow path in the collection and analysis area; providing a second electrode spaced from the collection electrode tip so as to define a spark gap in the collection an analysis area; providing a corona current between the second electrode and the collection electrode such that a cloud of ions is created between the electrodes, the particles of the aerosol being charged by the ions from the second electrode; introducing a flow of aerosol along the flow path; collecting particles of the aerosol on the tip of the collection electrode; applying a high voltage spark across the spark gap so as to ablate the particles collected on the tip of the collection electrode thereby creating atomic emissions; providing an optical window defined in the housing, the window being aligned with the spark gap; and collecting atomic emissions produced during at least part of the spark step for analysis of the ablated particles.