Patent ID: 7260483
Filing Date: 2007-08-21
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A method of identifying individual aerosol particles comprising: collimating sample aerosol particles into a particle beam; tracking the collimated particles of the particle beam; screening the tracked particles to determine which ones qualify for mass spectrometric analysis by satisfying predetermined qualification criteria; desorbing/ionizing the qualifying particles in a bipolar mass spectrometer to produce positive and negative test spectra for each qualifying particle; and determining the identity of each desorbed/ionized particle by comparing the corresponding positive and negative test spectrum to spectra of the same respective polarity in a database of predetermined positive and negative spectra for known particle types to obtain a set of substantially matching spectra; and determining a best matching one of the known particle types having both a substantially matching positive spectrum and a substantially matching negative spectrum associated therewith from the set of substantially matching spectra.