Design and Testing of a Photochemical Aerosol Generator for Calibrating Aerosol Measuring Instruments in the Submicrometer Region

A new type of photochemical type aerosol generator of nanometersized particles, based on UV photolysis of certain haloidaromatic compounds and metal carbonyls is described. The particle number concentration may be varied from 105 to 107 cm-3 and the particle diameter from 2 to 100 nm. The temporal stability of the particle concentration and mean diameter is about ± 5% and ± 10% for approximately 4 h. This generator can be used for calibration and adjustment of various aerosol measuring instruments individually or in combination with other devices, such as electrostatic classifiers, etc.