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Final Program


Final Program

ACE 2025

AQMM

Next Generation Air Monitoring Tools and Techniques

An Innovative Automated Scanning Electron Microscope Methodology for Quantifying Airborne Elongated Mineral Particles

Wednesday, June 11, 2025
3:30pm – 3:50pm ET
Location: 302B
Abstract Description: Exposure to carcinogenic elongated mineral particles (EMP’s) from zeolitic origins presents a significant health risk due to their potential for airborne dispersion and small size. EMPs can be released into the air through various emission pathways, including through earthworks associated with urban development. Analysis using microscopic techniques such as phase contrast microscopy (PCM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are the most typical methods for determination of EMPs from complex environmental filter samples. The manual nature of such methods is costly, time-consuming and labour intensive. It also does not result in conclusive particle identification limiting the effectiveness and throughput of a large number of samples from large-scale monitoring campaigns. Here we present a novel methodology for automatically detecting and quantifying EMPs using an automated SEM. Fibres were identified on pre-sampled polycarbonate filters (PC). Using imaged based classifications and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) for elemental quantification, the workflow identifies particles based on their size, length-to-width ratio and elemental composition. Our results demonstrated a linear relationship (R² = 0.98***) from prepared performance evaluation standards with a detection limit of 7.4 f/cc. The approach can be optimised by the user depending on time available and detection limits suitable for their application. Application of the method to real-world sample provided promising results from complex environmental samples.