Patent ID: 7767150

Claim:
In wet electrostatic precipitation-based apparatus for detecting the presence of an airborne chemical or biological analyte, the improvement comprising: Providing an electrostatic precipitator to the wet electrostatic precipitation-based apparatus, wherein the electrostatic precipitator consists of A). A gas-and liquid-containing chamber; B). Means for introducing an analyte-free collection liquid into said chamber; and C). Means for rapidly sampling a volume of ambient air and transferring said analyte therefrom into said collection liquid, said sampling means consisting of: comprising an air intake means, an air venting means, and means for removing from said chamber an analyte-enriched collection liquid; wherein said volume of air passes through a horizontal air inlet and thence through a vertical electrically conductive collector electrode tube with means for applying and adjusting an electric field between said tube and a co-axial spiked wire- or rod-shaped discharge electrode, said collector tube and discharge electrode forming part of said chamber, wherein said electric field is high enough to effectuate a corona discharge so as to generate ionized particles that could be driven towards said collector electrode by an electric field, and wherein said removing means comprises means for feeding said enriched liquid to an appropriate detector or storing said liquid for subsequent analysis.