Miniaturizing wet scrubbers for aerosolized droplet capture

Lee, U. N.; van Neel, T. L.; Lim, F. Y.; Khor, J. W.; He, J.; Vaddi, R. S.; Berthier, J.; Novosselov, I. V.; Theberge, A. B.; Berthier, E.

doi:10.1101/2021.03.23.436614

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.03.23.436614

Miniaturizing wet scrubbers for aerosolized droplet capture

Lee, U. N.·van Neel, T. L.·Lim, F. Y.·Khor, J. W.·He, J.·Vaddi, R. S.·Berthier, J.·Novosselov, I. V.·Theberge, A. B.·Berthier, E.

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Abstract

Aerosols dispersed and transmitted through the air (e.g., particulate matter pollution, bioaerosols) are ubiquitous and one of the leading causes of adverse health effects and disease transmission. A variety of sampling methods (e.g., filters, cyclones, impactors) have been developed to assess personal exposures. However, a gap still remains in the accessibility and ease-of-use of these technologies for people without experience or training in collecting airborne samples. Additionally, wet scrubbers (large non-portable industrial systems) utilize liquid sprays to remove aerosols from the air; the goal is to "scrub" (i.e., clean) the exhaust of industrial smokestacks, not collect the aerosols for analysis. Inspired by wet scrubbers, we developed a device fundamentally different from existing portable air samplers by using aerosolized microdroplets to capture aerosols in personal spaces (e.g., homes, offices, schools). Our aerosol-sampling device is the size of a small teapot, can be operated without specialized training, and features a winding flow path in a supersaturated relative humidity environment enabling droplet growth. The integrated open mesofluidic channels shuttle coalesced droplets to a collection chamber for subsequent sample analysis. Here, we present the experimental demonstration of aerosol capture into water droplets. Iterative study optimized the non-linear flow manipulating baffles and enabled an 83% retention of the aerosolized microdroplets in the confined volume of our device. As a proof-of-concept for aerosol capture into a liquid medium, 0.5-3 {micro}m model particles were used to evaluate aerosol capture efficiency. Finally, we demonstrate the device can capture and keep a bioaerosol (bacteriophage MS2) viable for downstream analysis.

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Lee, U. N., van Neel, T. L., Lim, F. Y., Khor, J. W., He, J., Vaddi, R. S., Berthier, J., Novosselov, I. V., Theberge, A. B., Berthier, E.. 2021-03-24. Miniaturizing wet scrubbers for aerosolized droplet capture. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.23.436614

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