Enhanced performance of pocket-sized nanoparticle exposure monitor for healthy indoor environment

An electrophoretic cantilever-based nanoparticle (NP) sensor was described and evaluated for personal monitoring of occupational exposure at indoor environment. Measurements performed under defined NP concentrations in a conditioned chamber confirmed the feasibility of the measurement principle. For the first laboratory sample of the sensor cyclic switching between NP sampling and frequency tracking revealed settling times of 5 min and 1.5 min, respectively, until stable conditions were reached. Using an enhanced design of the sampling head this response time was considerably reduced to 20 s. With a total device volume of 540 cm(3), weight of 375 g, and power consumption of 1.25 W the fully integrated pocket-sized system can be easily held or worn, e.g., by workmen in nanotechnology industry during their working shifts. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.