Automation of a Low-Cost Venturi Aerosol Generator

Solid particle aerosol generation can be a costly technique that may have limited applications for a researcher. Herein, we discuss a low-cost method of solid aerosol generation for less than $1000 USD. The aerosol generation system was validated with acetaminophen and syloid 244 by studying the aerosolization into a chamber using this lab-built low-cost solid aerosol generator. This method used an inexpensive Venturi aspirator valve to pull the material from a hopper and disperse it into an 85 L chamber, creating a non-recirculating aerosol environment. The demonstrated system is a modification of a previously reported low-cost aerosol generator by the addition of electronic control valves automating the aerosolization process resulting in increased repeatability of air volume ejected into the chamber as well as decreasing the retrograde emission of materials. In each experiment, an initial spike of material was observed on the particle counter with exponential decay of total particles as they fell out of suspension or were consumed by the particle counter. In addition, the lab-built system was directly compared to a more expensive commercially available belt-fed Venturi aerosol generator and our experiments show that both methods produced similar results in regards to the particle distribution and time to create a stable aerosol environment. The addition of inexpensive electronic valves to this simple Venturi aspirator opens the area of solid particle aerosol generation to a larger audience without the high-cost burden normally associated with other commercially available technologies.