Developments in Continuous Fine Particle Mass Monitoring: Sample Equilibration and Differential Particle Sampling

Two major advances in real-time monitoring of fine particles were supported under this research. These include reducing the moisture content of the sampled ambient air so that the temperature of the device could be reduced from 50°C to 30°C, and developing an innova­ tive approach to account for the loss of semivolatile materials on the filter surface. The devices have the potential to provide highly time resolved and accurate fine particle mass data that can be used to improve health effects studies, verify the impact of state implementation for controlling PM2.5, as well as to reduce monitoring costs. Microbalance (TEOM) inertial mass measure­ ment method. The two goals of these efforts were (1) to increase correlation with measure­ ments made using the Federal Reference Method (FRM), a 24-hour filter-based method; and (2) to develop a continuous measurement system that more closely represents the mass of fine parti­ cles found in ambient air, rather than that found following the techniques described in the FRM.