Differentiation of Hydrophobic from Hydrophilic Submicrometer Aerosol Particles

A method has been developed that differentiates hydrophobic from hydrophilic submicrometer aerosol particles in air environments containing polydisperse aerosols composed of different chemical species. First, a narrow particle size range is extracted from the polydisperse aerosol by an electrostatic aerosol classifier. Then the monodisperse aerosols of different origins are exposed to preselected supersaturation levels and are size-classified again by a second electrostatic classifier. Hydrophobic aerosol particles pass through the second classifier when its size window matches that of the first classifier. Hydrophilic aerosol particles grow to a larger size and are removed by the second classifier. The method has been applied in the field by measuring the fraction of hydrophobic atmospheric particles in a suburb of Vilnius, Lithuania, during a period of high emission of hydrophobic soot particles from residential coal and industrial oil burning in winter.