Researchers studying the biological effects of combustion particles typically rely on suspending particles in de-ionized (DI) water, buffer, and/or media prior to in vitro or in vivo experiments. However, the hydrophobic nature of combustion particles makes it difficult to obtain well-suspended, evenly dispersed mixtures, which also makes it difficult to obtain equivalent dosing and endpoint comparisons. This study explored the use of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure the mass concentration of combustion particle suspensions. It compared the QCM mass concentration to that estimated by placing a known mass of combustion particles in DI water. It also evaluated the effect of drop volume and combustion particle type on QCM measurements. The results showed that QCM is a promising direct method for measuring suspended combustion particle mass concentrations, and it is particularly effective for quantifying concentrations of difficult-to-suspend particles and for combustion particles placed in polystyrene containers, which can lead to substantial particle losses.

中文翻译：

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石英晶体微量天平在测量燃烧颗粒悬浮液质量浓度中的应用

研究燃烧颗粒生物效应的研究人员通常依赖于在体外或体内实验之前将颗粒悬浮在去离子 (DI) 水、缓冲液和/或介质中。然而，燃烧颗粒的疏水性使得难以获得良好悬浮、均匀分散的混合物，这也使得难以获得等效的剂量和终点比较。本研究探索了使用石英晶体微量天平 (QCM) 来测量燃烧颗粒悬浮液的质量浓度。它将 QCM 质量浓度与通过在去离子水中放置已知质量的燃烧颗粒估计的质量浓度进行了比较。它还评估了液滴体积和燃烧粒子类型对 QCM 测量的影响。