Evaluation of the Alphasense Optical Particle Counter (OPC-N2) and the Grimm Portable Aerosol Spectrometer (PAS-1.108)

Abstract

We compared the performance of a low-cost (∼$500), compact optical particle counter (OPC, OPC-N2, Alphasense) to another OPC (PAS-1.108, Grimm Technologies) and reference instruments. We measured the detection efficiency of the OPCs by size from 0.5 to 5 μm for monodispersed, polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres. We then compared number and mass concentrations measured with the OPCs to those measured with reference instruments for three aerosols: salt, welding fume and Arizona road dust. The OPC-N2 detection efficiency for monodispersed was similar to the PAS-1.108 for particles larger than 0.8 μm (minimum of 79% at 1 μm and maximum of 101% at 3 μm). For 0.5-μm particles, the detection efficiency of OPCN2 was underestimated at 78%, whereas PAS-1.108 overestimated concentrations by 183%. The mass concentrations from the OPCs were linear (r ≥ 0.97) with those from the reference instruments for all aerosols, although the slope and intercept were different. The mass concentrations were overestimated for dust (OPC-N2, slope = 1.6; PAS-1.108, slope = 2.7) and underestimated for welding fume (OPC-N2, slope = 0.05; PAS-1.108, slope = 0.4). The coefficient of variation (CV, precision) for OPC-N2 for all experiments was between 4.2% and 16%. These findings suggest that, given site-specific calibrations, the OPC-N2 can provide number and mass concentrations similar to the PAS-1.108 for particles larger than 1 μm.

Figure 1

Experimental set up used to determine the performance of the low-cost sensors.

Figure 2

Detection efficiency of the OPC-N2 and PAS-1.108 by aerodynamic diameter.

Figure 3. Particle number concentration by size measured for A) Salt; B) Welding fume; and C) ARD

Figure 4

Firmware calculated PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ mass concentrations for OPC-N2 and PAS-1.108 relative to reference mass concentration for the salt experiment.

Figure 5

Firmware calculated PM₁₀ mass concentrations for OPC-N2 and PAS-1.108 relative to reference mass concentration for welding fume (circles) and ARD (diamonds) experiments.