Naneos PartectorTEM User manual
PartectorTEM
miniature TEM sampler
Operation Manual
English
A nanoparticle dosimeter for easy workplace exposure monitoring
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Document information
© naneos particle solutions gmbh, 2019
Related device versions : V2_3
Related firmware versions : >374
Document Date: 2019-09-20
Document Revision : C
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Used abbreviations
TEM transmission electron microscope
DC diffusion charging, diffusion charger
HV high voltage
LED light-emitting diode
LDSA lung deposited surface area
SD micro Secure Digital memory card
Safety information
General notes and warnings
This operation manual must be read completely before using the
partectorTEM. Incorrect use or handling and any consequences arising
from this may damage the device or endanger personnel.
The manufacturer declines all liability resulting from incorrect use and
handling.
Safety notes
Never operate the instrument at condensing conditions.
Do not blow into the instrument.
Do not open the partectorTEM as you may damage it.
Do not operate the partectorTEM with an open charger hatch.
Do not operate the partectorTEM without inserted TEM probe holder.
The partectorTEM is a sensitive instrument made for measuring
nanoparticles. Sampling too much coarse dust will eventually lead to
deteriorating instrument performance. Use a cyclone when measuring in
environments where large number of microparticles might be present.
Do not operate the partectorTEM in an explosive atmosphere or in the
presence of flammable gases or fumes.
Have your instrument recalibrated once a year.
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Instrument specifications
Measured value: LDSA (Lung Deposited Surface Area)
Concentration range: 0-20’000 m2/cm3
Particle size range: 10 nm to 10 m
displayed LDSA value is only accurate in the size
range of 10-400 nm; however, the instrument can
be used to measure micron-sized particles too.
Accuracy: ± 30 %
Noise floor: ~ 1 m2/cm3 in particle-free air
Sampling efficiency: particle size dependent;
approximately 3% at 50nm
Time resolution: 4s (standard, faster as an option)
Inlet flow: 0.5 l/min
Battery power: 10h approximately
Charging: via USB
Data storage: SD-card
PC Interface: USB/serial by virtual COM-Port
Dimensions: 7.8 x 13.4 x 2.9 cm
Weight: 440 g
Checking the shipment contents
When unpacking the device, verify that you have received the following
items. If any of the components are missing or damaged, contact naneos.
Type
Items
Standard
PartectorTEM device
USB cable
SD-card 2 GB
SD/SD-card adapter or SD/USB-adapter
Neoprene sleeve (optional)
5 spare grid holders, screwed into the grid holder
transport plate
TEM grid probe case
USB charger
Tweezers for TEM grid probe handling
Peli transport case
User manual
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Getting started
Instrument description
The partectorTEM is a portable, battery powered miniature TEM sampler
that allows to measure the lung deposited surface area (LDSA) of
nanoparticles. It can take samples on standard 3.05mm diameter TEM
grids by electrostatic precipitation. It automatically determinates the
optimal probe sampling time and stops sampling when a sensible
coverage of the grid is reached. Measurement data and grid coverage is
displayed on a graphical display and data will be stored on a SD card. A
user-defined LDSA start sampling level can be set. Beside this the
partectorTEM has all the functionality of the “normal” partector that can be
used as a portable aerosol dosimeter for personal exposure monitoring.
Figure 1: partectorTEM main parts
1 inlet 5 right soft key 9 USB Port
2 power button 6 middle soft key 10 charge LED
3 DC charger hatch 7 left soft key 11 TEM probe holder
4 display 8 SD card slot
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Measurement unit
The particles are measured in terms of alveolar lung-deposited surface
area (A-LDSA), a metric which, according to latest results from toxicology
studies, is likely more health relevant than the traditionally measured
particulate mass or particle number. Its unit is described as m2/cm3
(square micrometer per cubic centimeter).
For more information about the measurement unit and its relevance read:
http://www.naneos.ch/pdf/LDSA.pdf
Aerosol inlet and outlet
The aerosol inlet is located at the top of the instrument. The internal pump
provides an air flow of about 0.5 l/min. The standard aerosol inlet has a 6
mm barb for tubing connection and contains a coarse wire mesh to keep
coarse dirt and small insects out of the instrument.
The air exits the device via the USB-port and SD-card
opening in the housing. Note that the air is not filtered
internally, so do not connect the instrument to hazardous
nanoparticle sources!
Tubing
When using the Partector TEM with tubing (to attach the optional
cyclone, or for other purposes), make sure not to use conductive silicone
tubing. This type of tubing is frequently used because with conductive
tubing, there are no electrostatic losses of particles, and the silicone
tubing is very flexible. Unfortunately, this type of tubing releases silanes
which leed to rapid fouling of the Partector's corona wire. We
recommend using PVC tubing instead –a nice flexible version is Tygon
S3 E-3603. If in doubt about using tubing, please contact us. In any
case, tubing should only be as long as necessary to prevent particle
losses in the tubing.
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Supplying power
To charge the partectorTEM or to operate it for periods longer than the
battery lifetime, connect the partectorTEM USB port to a PC or Laptop or
to a USB-Charger to charge the device.
While charging, the blue charge LED on the front panel lights up. When
the partectorTEM is fully charged, it turns off.
Insert / remove SD-card
To store data on the microSD-card, insert it in the partectorTEM as shown
in the graph till it snaps in. To remove the SD-card, press on the inserted
card which will force the release. To insert the card in your SD-card slot
on a PC you need to insert the card first in the SD/SD-card adapter or
SD/USB adapter provided.
Turning the device on and off
To turn the device on, press the power button. To turn it off, press and
hold the power button for two seconds and release it when the goodbye
message appears.
Recording measurements on the SD-card
If a SD-card is inserted in the partectorTEM at startup, the device
automatically starts recording on the SD-card when the device is turned
on. It automatically generates a filename depending on start date, time
and device serial. For more information about this, read the “partector data
file” section.
If you insert the SD-card while the device is running, the data
logging will not start automatically. You need to turn the device
on after inserting the card.
Figure 2 Insert SD-card
Figure 2a: Inserting the SD-
card
Figure 3b: Inserting the SD-card into the adapter
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Do not remove the SD-card while the device is running. The data file
needs to be closed properly, otherwise it will be corrupt.
Keypad functions & symbols
In the picture below you can see the partectorTEM display screens:
Figure 4: partectorTEM menu screens
Home screen
On the home screen you can see the LDSA concentration, date and time
and also the charge state of the battery. If no key is pressed for more than
one minute, the display goes dark to prolong battery life. By pressing any
key, the display turns on again.
The lightning symbol indicates that the high
voltage in the charger is on and working properly.
The blinking red dot indicates that data is being
written on SD-Card.
The exclamation mark indicates that an error
occurred at some point during the current
measurement.
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If you want to take a TEM sample, insert a fresh sample, and press the
right button below the text “deposit”. The partectorTEM starts deposition
and will display the percentage of the deposition time.
Pressing the “info” soft button switches to the info screen
Info screen
The info screen displays device specific system information:
Serial: serial number of the device
Minutes: total operating time in minutes
LDSAmin: LDSA value integrated over time
Pulses: number of high voltage charging pulses
Calib: calibration factor
Date: date of calibration
Pressing the “status” soft button brings you to the status screen. Pressing
the “alarm” soft button brings you to the alarm screen.
Pressing the “config” soft button brings you to the config screen.
Status screen
The status screen shows the most important device data.
RH,T internal relative humidity [%] and temperature [°C]
BATT battery voltage
ADC electrometer signal
HV charger corona voltage
Idiff charger diffusion current
Config screen
In the config screen, you can change some settings of the partectorTEM
Alarm level: use the “up” and “down” soft key to change the alarm level
to the desired value. When the measurement value exceeds the alarm
level, the internal buzzer of the partectorTEM will produce an audible
warning.
Low power mode: you can choose whether the device should operate in
low-power mode or not. In low power mode, the display turns off
automatically after a few minutes of inactivity to increase battery lifetime.
Pressing any button (also the power button) will turn on the display again.
The display will also turn on automatically if an error message is displayed.
Time and Date: the internal clock of the partectorTEM has an accuracy of
about 1s per day. It does not change to daylight saving time and back
automatically. Therefore, you may need to set the clock from time to time.
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Press the “next” soft button until you are on the field you want to modify,
then use the “up” and “down” soft buttons to change the field’s value.
Statistics screen
The statistics screen allows you to view events detected in the past. By
pressing + and –you can change the shown time axis from minute to hour
and day.
TEM probe sampling
Particles are charged electrically, measured contactlessly by induction,
and finally deposited on the TEM grid by an electrostatic field. Because
the particle concentration is measured online, the sampler automatically
determines how long it must sample for an optimal coverage of the TEM
grid (~1% of the area covered with particles). If/when you find a hotspot
where you want to take a TEM sample, insert a fresh sample, and press
the right button below the text “deposit”
Figure 5: main screen before and during TEM probe sampling
During deposition, the TEM sampler will display the percentage of the
deposition time on its main screen. If you do nothing, it will sample until
the value reaches 100%, then it will stop the deposition, and instead of the
percent-display the sampler will display done. You can also stop the
deposition manually by pressing the right button below the text “stop”.
Color coding of LDSA values
The LDSA display is color-coded to provide a quick assessment of air
quality. LDSA values below 50 m2/cm3 are displayed in green, values
above 250 m2/cm3 in red, and values in between in yellow.
Figure 6: color coding of LDSA values
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Extended operation information
Different inlet options
The partectorTEM comes with a standard inlet –a 6mm tube fitting with a
steel mesh. You can use either this or you can add a cyclone in front of
the tube inlet to remove coarse particles. The internal pump cannot
support high pressure drops, so you should not use an impactor.
The partectorTEM is a miniature instrument with an extremely
sensitive internal electrometer. Fibers or dust particles which
are larger than about 1mm in size can produce short circuits in
the instrument. Therefore, the tube inlet has a steel mesh to
prevent really coarse dust particles or small insects from entering the
instrument. If you do not use the inlet, you risk aspirating coarse dust that
may result in a deteriorated instrument performance.
We recommend the use of a cyclone if you are measuring in environments
where a large number of coarse particles are present. For example, the
SKC GS-3 cyclone would be useful for this purpose.
http://www.skcinc.com/prod/225-100.asp
If you are certain that you have no coarse particles in your air (which is
normally the case in ambient air), then you can also use the tube inlet.
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Handling the TEM grid
Handling the small TEM grids is a bit tricky, but with some practice it is not
hard. We suggest that you try loading and removing grids from the grid
holder for a while until you feel comfortable with the procedure.
First unscrew the TEM probe holder
and remove it from the device.
Figure 7: removing the TEM probe holder
The grid holder has a brass cap that you can unscrew. Once the cap is
unscrewed, you can place a TEM grid on the grid holder. Try to place it
more or less in the center, it doesn’t have to be perfectly centered.
Figure 8: placing a TEM grid
Screw down the cap - slowly towards the end while observing the TEM
grid. If it was reasonably centered, it will now align perfectly with the hole
as you screw the cap down, as the cap matches the tapered end of the
holder and thus automatically shifts the grid until it is nicely centered. To
remove the grid after sampling, unscrew the cap and remove the grid with
tweezers.
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The partector data file
To view the measured and stored partectorTEM data, remove the SD
and insert it in your PC as described in a previous section. Now you either
download the partector data analysis tool from the naneos website to view
the data or you open the data file with your favourite data analysis program
(Excel, Origin, Igor etc). The data file is a simple tab-delimited text file. File
names encode the recording time and device serial no. For example, if
you start recording a file on 2nd August at 12:35 with a device with the
serial no. 19, the file name will be stored in the folder 08_02 with the file
name 019_1235.txt. Parameters like relative humidity, temperature,
battery voltage etc. will only be recorded every 10 seconds.
The partector analysis tool allows you to quickly view graphs of all
instrument parameters, to average data in different intervals, and to
combine measured data with a GPS signal and plot it in Google Earth.
Read the separate quick guide on our website for more information.
Error messages
Whenever an operation parameter of the partectorTEM is outside of its
normal range, a warning message appears on the partectorTEM screen.
The warning shows up in red on the home screen:
Figure 9: generic warning message on home screen
There are different reasons for warnings to appear, and a click on the
“show” soft button will display details on the warning. Some error
conditions may disappear again by themselves (particularly such related
to high humidity), upon which the warning message will also disappear
again. However, it can be important to know that an error occurred, and
therefore, a red exclamation mark remains in the title bar as a reminder
that an error occurred at some point:
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Figure 10: home screen after recovery from an error condition
The following table gives an overview over the possible error conditions
and on what to do to remove them.
message
possible cause
what to do
SD card error:
“Card missing?”
“file_fopen”
“mkdir”
“efs_init”
- no SD card inserted
- SD card initialisation
problem
- bad card format
- insert SD card
- reboot device
- format SD card
Pulse low error
- too high relative
humidity
- device
contamination
- try measurement with lower
humidity
- contact naneos
Pulse high error
- diffusion current
does not reach
setpoint
- open charger hatch and
clean corona wire as
described in the next
section. If the message
still appears, contact
naneos.
Buffer overflow
- software loop time
delayed.
- report error to naneos. You
can still measure with the
device if it only appears
infrequently.
RH error
- relative humidity is
very high and may
hinder measurement
- if possibly, measure at
lower RH (use dryer)
EM zero offset
high
- high RH
- device
contamination
- if possibly, measure at
lower RH (use dryer)
Some of the error conditions are rather harmless (e.g. high electrometer
zero offset, high RH error), whereas especially the pulse errors will
interfere with a correct measurement. If you experience frequent errors,
please contact us by email, and send us a description of the error
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message, what you were doing when it occurred, and if possible, the data
file of that measurement.
Maintenance
Cleaning the corona wire of the charger
Turn the device off before cleaning the corona wire! During operation, the
corona wire is at high voltage and you will receive a harmless slight shock
if you touch it.
Open the two screws marked in figure 7 with a philips screw driver.
Remove the charger hatch. Check condition of sealing o-ring. Contact
naneos for a replacement if it is brittle or has visible cracks. Take an artist’s
brush and carefully slide it along the thin HV wire. Too much force can
break the corona wire!
Figure 11: Charger hatch closed (left) and opened (right)
Disposal
The device contains a lithium battery and must be disposed of accordingly.
Under no circumstances should it be disposed of with domestic refuse, nor
crushed or burnt. Naneos offers to take products back for correct disposal.
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Standards, approvals and patents
The partectorTEM is in conformity with the provisions of the following
European Directives:
2004/108/EC Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) (successor of
89/336/EEC with amendments)
2011/65/EC Restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS)
The technology of the partectorTEM is patent pending.
Related documents
Partector data analysis tool quick start guide:
www.naneos.ch/pdf/javatool_quick_guide.pdf
In-depth explanation of lung-deposited surface are (LDSA)
www.naneos.ch/pdf/LDSA.pdf
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