CAIMAN: a versatile facility to produce aerosols of nanoparticles

This work aims at presenting a nanoparticle generation non-transportable facility in aerosol phase called “CAIMAN” (acronym for Characterization of Instruments Measuring Aerosols of Nanoparticles) and its performances. This facility delivers primary nanoaerosols from electrodes made of C, Al, Cu (and mixtures containing Be), Ag, Constantane (a mixture of Cu-55wt% and Ni-45wt%) particles at known concentrations, sizes, shapes and mean charge levels. It is also capable to deliver well-known particle mixture containing combinations of the “primary” nanoaerosols and particles representatives of background aerosols (in the present work NaCl). The output of the CAIMAN facility is very consistent over long time intervals when operating under similar conditions. It indicates that repeatability is also one of the important assets of the facility.