Deposition of Ultrafine Aerosols in the Human Respiratory Tract

Abstract

The deposition of silver aerosols in the lungs of three healthy male volunteers was investigated. The particles were 0.009 μm in diameter and the geometric standard deviation was about 2.0. The particles were suspended in dry air with a concentration of 2 × 10⁵ cm⁻³. The fractional deposition was sensitive to mean residence time of the particle in the respiratory tract, but there was little effect of tidal volume.