Patent ID: 7153475

Claim:
An aerosol-particle analyzer (APA) for measuring the amount of an analyte in particles in a gas comprising: (a) an analysis liquid chosen to be suitable for collecting particles for further analysis; (b) a droplet generator, having a droplet generator output, that generates a droplet of the analysis liquid (DAL) and ejects it out of said droplet generator output when signaled to do so; (c) a particle-droplet-collision subsystem (PDCS) consisting of an aerosol particle detector enclosed in a gas-tight container, having a droplet input connected to the droplet generator output, a particle input, a PDCS-DAL output, and a vacuum connection that: (i) accepts the gas containing the particles via the particle input; (ii) detects when particles in the gas that are moving toward a particle-droplet collision region and signals for the droplet generator to eject a DAL toward the particle-droplet collision region; (iii) accepts the DAL via the droplet input so that the DAL moves through the particle-droplet collection region and collides with the particle that was detected, and combines with the particle; and (iv) passes the DAL that has combined with the particle out of the PDCS through PDCS-DAL output; (d) a vacuum pump connected to the PDCS vacuum connection that draws the gas and particles into the PDCS, where the gas and any particles not combined with the DAL are then evacuated; (e) a droplet analysis system that accepts the DAL ejected from the PDCS through a vacuum tight connection and measures the amount of analyte in the CDAL.