| Description |
A separations process was designed to separate fine aerosol particles in naturally occurring soils and in a mineral processing waste. The samples were collected into size fractions enriched with 10-2.5 μm, 2.5-1 μm, and < μm particles. Fine particles were drawn out of a ballmill jar by vacuum. A settling chamber placed between a ballmill grinder and an Andersen cascade impactor excluded oversized particles. After approximately 100 minutes of operation, one batch produced about 100mg of 1 μm-enriched particles. Characterization experiments were performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to verify that the separation was satisfactory. Morphology and chemical analysis of the particle samples were also performed. Samples were sent to Utah State University (USU) to perform in vitro cell culture toxicology assays. The characterization performed in this experiment will be correlated with the toxicology results from USU. |
