Initial Size Distributions and Hygroscopicity of Indoor Combustion Aerosol Particles

Abstract

Cigarette smoke, incense smoke, natural gas flames, propane fuel flames, and candle flames are contributors of indoor aerosol particles. To provide a quantitative basis for the modeling of inhaled aerosol deposition pattern, the hygroscopic growth of particles from these five sources as well as the source size distributions were measured. Because the experiments were performed on the bases of particles of single size, it provided not only the averaged particle's hygroscopic growth of each source, but also the detailed size change for particles of different sizes within the whole size spectrum. The source particle size distribution measurements found that cigarette smoke and incense smoke contained particles in the size range of 100–700 nm, while the natural gas, propane, and candle flames generated particles between 10 and 100 nm. The hygroscopic growth experiments showed that these combustion aerosol particles could grow 10% to 120%, depending on the particle sizes and origins