LAUSR

Low-cost particulate matters sensors (LCPMS) are widely used in indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring. Previous studies have explored the accuracy and precision of sensors, showing that LCPMS were most accurate for PM with diameters below 1 μm, and they poorly measured PM in the 2.5–5 μm range. The study aimed to investigate the aspiration and transmission efficiency of LCPMS, to set up a standard aerosol mass concentration generation system, to further comprehend the performance characteristics of LCPMS, and to examine the effect of aerosol loading. Three models of Plantower sensors were tested in this work. An ultrasonic atomizing nozzle was used to generate micrometer-sized NaCl aerosol particles. A TSI aerodynamic particle sizer was used to measure the aerosol concentrations and size distributions upstream and downstream of the LCPMS, to determine the aspiration and transmission efficiency. The mass concentration, from 20 µg/m3 to 200 mg/m3, could be varied by controlling the solution feeding rate and the solution concentration. The high mass concentration was mainly designed for aerosol loading study. The results showed that the aspiration efficiencies of the tested LCPMS were all almost 100% for particle smaller than 5 µm. The transmission efficiency of these sensors was function of particle size and strongly dependent on sampling flow. All sensors tested showed significant performance degrading when challenged with high mass concentration. The orientation of the sensor also played a role affecting the aerosol loading. These sensors performed better when mass concentration is below 100 µg/m3.