Then you could make a more informed evaluation of which particles are the most dangerous. Wilkins plans to modify a Fourier-Transform Mass Spectrometer to analyze particles one at a time and determine the particle's source and the chemicals it contains on its surface. Using the speed, the researchers will know when to fire a laser to ionize the chemicals contained on the particle's surface. They can then use the mass spectrometer to analyze those materials and identify them. The researchers can also turn up the power of the laser and blow the particle into little bits to analyze the particle itself.
Particles come from many different sources, including soil, sea salt and diesel fuel exhaust.
If you don't know their origin, you can't do anything to control them. This technology may also be applicable to bacteria, which correspond to the particle size range Wilkins plans to study. The mass spectra could serve as signatures for particular types of bacteria, which could then be compared with a library of such signatures. This could solve a current problem facing medical laboratories, where it often takes days to grow enough bacteria to determine their specific identity. Wilkins has also received NSF money to use the mass spectrometer to analyze synthetic polymers, commonly found in household plastics, synthetic materials and automobiles.