The research activity concerns the development and application of optical/spectroscopic techniques for chemical and morphological characterization of nanoparticles in aerosols.
The following techniques are currently used:

• Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII)
• Laser-Induced Breakdown Spettroscopy (LIBS)

LII technique is widely used to measure concentration and size of carbonaceous particles.

Recently a novel and portable LII instrument has been developed, designed and implemented in our lab (ITRM20090617 patent). The instrument is widely applied in measurement campaigns for air monitoring as well as at the exhaust of combustion systems (i.e. Wood /pellets stoves).

LIBS is a powerful atomic spectroscopic technique for qualitative and quantitative analysis of solids, liquids and gases. Recently the technique has been extended to aerosols.

A laser-induced microplasma is produced, which excites and decomposes the species in the measuring volume. The resulting radiation is a continuous spectrum with overlapped atomic emission lines characteristic of the species in the measuring volume. Consenquently a chemical composition of the nanoparticles in the probe volume is obtained.
LIBS technique is currently applied in our lab essentially for the analysis of micro-pollutants at the exhaust of combustion systems and in the environment.
The technique allows to gain time-resolved information without sampling procedure and the use of filters. For that the technique is also used to study chemical and physical properties of nanoparticle in different applications (e.g. electronics, construction, biology)

Morphologycal characterization is also performed with SEM and TEM/STEM analysis.