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Development and Use of Cocktail Reference Materials for Aerosol Analysis
The need for cocktail reference materials is discussed in the light of user requirements highlighted from a comprehensive market survey. The results of the survey have been reviewed, and assisted greatly in defining the specification for appropriate cocktail reference materials. A series of four three-component cocktail reference materials containing equal number concentrations of each component have been procured. The materials consist of spherical polymer latex particles with volume equivalent diameters in the range from 0.1 to 5.0 µm. Details are included of the techniques used by the manufacturer to provide traceable measurements of the particle diameters and number concentrations of the cocktails. Information is given on the commercial availability of the cocktail reference materials, along with guidance on their usage. This guidance concentrates on the use of pneumatic nebulisation to aerosolise aqueous suspensions, and covers the practical difficulties encountered frequently. Reference is also made to a nebuliser-based aerosol generator designed to overcome the majority of the difficulties discussed, which has been successfully used to nebulise samples of the cocktail reference materials.
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