Patent ID: 7631567

Claim:
A system for collecting particles comprising: an aerosol-into-liquid collector operative to position a collection liquid to capture particles entrained in a gas, the aerosol-into-liquid collector comprising: a nozzle operative to direct the gas with the particles entrained therein at a velocity of at least 10 meters per second; and a well operative to hold a volume of the collection liquid and being positioned such that at least some of the particles entrained in the gas collide with an exposed surface of the volume of the collection liquid and adhere to the volume of the collection liquid; wherein the gas, with the velocity of at least 10 meters per second, departing said nozzle and impinging upon the exposed surface of the volume of the collection liquid does not push the volume of the collection liquid out of the well and does not cause the volume of the collection liquid to break into multiple droplets, and said nozzle has an interior nozzle diameter and the exposed surface of the collection liquid is positioned at a distance less than two times the interior nozzle diameter from the nozzle; further, the interior nozzle diameter and the diameter of said well are each less than about 1.4 millimeters.