Most conventional aerosol neutralizers are based on radioactive sources, which are controlled by strict regulations restricting their handling, transport, and storage. The TSI 3087 soft X-ray (SXR) neutralizer circumvents these legal restrictions. The aim of the present work is to compare the performance of a standalone SXR aerosol neutralizer with that of conventional radioactive aerosol neutralizers based on ⁸⁵Kr (TSI 3077) and ²⁴¹Am (Grimm 5522) by performing field tests in a real environmental scenario. The results obtained when the SXR neutralizer was connected to a mobility particle sizer spectrometer (MPS), different from the device suggested by the manufacturer, were comparable with those obtained with the use of radioactive aerosol neutralizers. In changing the neutralizer, the particle number concentrations, measured with the MPS connected to the SXR neutralizer, almost remained within the 10% uncertainty bounds for the particle size interval 10–300 nm, when diffusion losses inside the SXR tube were considered. Based on our comparisons, the SXR neutralizer can be regarded as a standalone instrument that could solve the problems associated with legal restrictions on radioactive neutralizers and fulfil the need for a portable instrument for different field test purposes.

大多数传统的气溶胶中和剂都是基于放射源，这些放射源受到严格的法规的限制，这些法规限制了它们的处理，运输和存储。TSI 3087软X射线（SXR）中和器规避了这些法律限制。本工作的目的是将独立的SXR气溶胶中和器与基于⁸⁵ Kr（TSI 3077）和²⁴¹的常规放射性气溶胶中和器的性能进行比较Am（Grimm 5522）通过在真实环境中进行现场测试。将SXR中和器连接到迁移率粒度分析仪（MPS）时获得的结果与制造商建议的设备不同，与使用放射性气溶胶中和器获得的结果相当。在更换中和器时，考虑到SXR管内的扩散损失，在MPS与SXR中和器连接的情况下测得的颗粒数浓度几乎保持在10％至300 nm粒径范围的10％不确定性范围内。根据我们的比较，