Young-Su Jeong This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Hyunsoo Seo, Sang-Soo Han, Young-Jin Koh, Kibong Choi Chem-Bio Technology Center, Advanced Defense Science and Technology Research Institute, Agency for Defense Development, Daejeon, Korea
Received:
May 31, 2022
Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.
Revised:
November 22, 2022
Accepted:
February 27, 2023
Download Citation:
||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220218
Jeong, Y.S., Seo, H., Han, S.S., Koh, Y.J., Choi, K. (2023). A Simple Method for Generating Narrowly-dispersed Bioaerosols in Various Sizes. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 23, 220218. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220218
Cite this article:
Biological warfare agents (BWAs) cause disease in humans, animals, and plants when purposefully dispersed in an area. To minimize contamination and personnel exposure and initiate early treatment, effective BWA detection or monitoring techniques are needed. Currently, bioaerosol detection or monitoring techniques are used for detecting BWA; however, these techniques have limitations, such as limited sensitivity. To improve the detection performance and develop novel techniques, an additional step in sample preparation, such as obtaining particles of various sizes, is needed. In this study, we investigated the simple and effective generation of bioaerosol particles using a custom-made inkjet aerosol generator (IJAG). Unlike previous inkjet aerosol generators, the operation conditions of the IJAG are fixed at a nozzle heating temperature of 140°C, a driver voltage of 150 V, a pulse width of 60 µs, and a frequency of 250 Hz. The only controlled factor was the concentration of bioaerosol models, including Bacillus globigii spores, ovalbumin, and polystyrene sphere latex. Our system generated bioaerosols with a diameter of 1–8 µm and a narrow distribution size. These results suggest that our IJAG system can achieve the simple and versatile generation of narrow-dispersed bioaerosols for a wide range of available materials. Our study can help improve the sensitivity of detection and monitoring systems for BWAs and bioaerosols.HIGHLIGHTS
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
Biological warfare agents, Simulants, Bioaerosols, Bioaerosol particle size