A study of interactions and reactivity of ambient aerosols by a dual-impactor technique

It is well known that numerous physical and chemical processes can take place during the lifetime of each individual atmospheric aerosol particle or agglomerate (e.g. nucleation, accumulation, growth due to the heterogeneous and gas-to-particle reactions, etc.). Ambient conditions such as temperature, humidity, presence of trace gases, oxidants and catalyticaI1y active species, radiation, etc. play a crucial role in such interactions. There are almost no laboratory systems that can simulate a real "natural atmospheric reactor" completely. To approach this problem we used the dual-impactor technique first introduced by dr. A. Berner into the studies of the interactions, reactions and growth of aerosols. In general, the main advantage of Berner type low pressure impactors is that the relatively high air flow rate enables collection of enough mass of aerosol deposit material on the surface of foils for chemical and even gravimetrical analysis.