Particulate matter (PM) is a mass-focused way of describing air quality. PM is dominated by larger particles. While smaller particles called ‘ultrafine particles’ do exist in ambient air – sometimes in significant quantities – they are too small to contribute appreciably to traditional PM-based measurements.

The traditional way to express the amount of PM in ambient air is to use size fractions. The PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 size fractions contain particulate matter that is 1 / 2.5 / 10 micrometers and smaller. There is also a ‘total’ size fraction which includes all particulate matter, regardless of size.

Construction Site Monitoring

Fence-line and construction site monitoring can be done with the DustTrak Environmental. The optical detection segregates particulate matter fractions into PM1, PM2.5, Respirable, PM10 and total PM. The sensor’s enclosure and cloud data service make it applicable for remote outdoor monitoring.

The TSI BlueSky™ Air Quality Monitor has been developed for community monitoring. The air quality monitor is a lightweight, laser-based particle instrument designed to simultaneously measure PM2.5 and PM10 particulate matter concentrations, as well as temperature and relative humidity.

Real-time Mass Detection

The research-grade high-end QCM MOUDI™ impactor is a great tool for real-time particulate matter measurements. The cascade impactor is a precision impactor with real-time mass detection based on Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) sensors.