Venturi-scrubber pre-concentration technique for electrochemical detection of airborne lead traces Original Research Article

A method for ambient tracing of airborne lead-containing pollutants is reported. It is based on coupling a Venturi-scrubber aerosol sampling with square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry. The method was tested by a series of pilot experiments. These were performed using contamination-controlled air intakes. A linear concentration process was achieved by the Venturi-scrubber. These data were cross-referenced by means of standard analysis of the lead-containing aerosols entrapped on filter sampler. Successful modeling of experimental results was achieved. Several aspects, relevant to on-line monitoring of such lead-contaminated aerosols, have been addressed. The sampling efficiency increases with the average aerosol size and is reduced by persisting non-soluble airborne particulates. The reported pre-concentration processes are consistent with a well-known inertial impact mechanism. In regards of capturing liquid aerosols, this approach appears to be more effective than that with filters.