"Characterization of a Novel Particle into Liquid Sampler for Analysis of Single Fluorescent Aerosol Particles Through Capillary Electrophoresis (CE)."

An approach to sample and analyze single aerosolized droplets (< 10 nL) of solutions containing fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labeled glycine (GLY) and glutamic acid (GLU) is demonstrated. The sampling approach is based on inertial impaction in which the sample particle is accelerated through a nozzle and directly into a small drop of buffered solution (20 mM borate, pH = 10) suspended at the end of a coaxial tube of stainless steel and a fused silica capillary. A spherical light scattering cell and laser ( = 532 nm) is used to detect the arrival of particles at the buffered droplet. Upon dissolution and / or mixing, a portion of the sample is injected onto the fused silica capillary for subsequent chemical analysis by capillary electrophoresis (CE) and detection by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). It was found that the inertial impaction approach sampled particles > 1 m diameter with an efficiency of 80% or greater. At 15 kV applied potential, the FITC conjugates of GLY a