LLNL has a successful history of developing instruments for detecting and characterizing airborne pathogens. Often, aerosol characterizing instruments require highly focused particle beams with little or no transmission losses. In addition, they need to interface to the sampling environment with a very high sampling rate so that more aerosol particles can be collected and sensitivity can be improved. The pressure-flow reducing nozzle was originally part of LLNL’s R&D100 award winning Biological Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (BAMS) system. The patented design can be used with other aerosol analysis instruments to perform high-flow, atmosphere-pressure sampling.

U.S. Patent No. 7,361,891, “Pressure Flow Reducer for Aerosol Focusing Devices” (LLNL internal case # IL11478)

Contact: follett2@llnl.gov