Question: What are some ways to collect dust or particulate samples for analysis?

warren is asking a question about air-quality
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by warren | November 30, 2017 16:35 | #15271


For example, with a microscope?

We're sourcing different techniques for the dust sampling page!



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When we were in WI @gretchengehrke, @mathew, and I were visiting some friends and we took a sample from a window at their house. The house window was facing a frack sand mine and appeared to be covered with a thin dust layer. We used a small razor and scraped the window in a downward fashion onto a slide. Since we just wanted to look at the materials that came off of the window under a microscope, we weren't worried about the sample size, contamination or anything like that. Made it pretty simple. I know @kgradow1 did something neat with tape on a rock recently as well.

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One idea from @dswenson that came from the open call yesterday was to use materials like sticky yellow flytraps like these

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@DavidMack posted on sticky pads a while back on the #particle-sensing page:

Essentially tape, sticky pads have the advantage of capturing a record of actual particles that can be analyzed later. They can be scanned and digitized for standardized readings. More can be found on the Sustainable Aggregates website.

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This post walks through collecting a sample, and some examples. They also reference this resource for collecting dust samples: http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/dust/dust.htm

Thanks @partsandcrafts

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