Aerosol and Microparticle Generation Using a Commercial Inkjet Printer

Figures & data

FIG. 1 Schematic drawings of the experimental setup showing (a) the modified inkjet printer and stationary mounted cartridge carriage (top view) and (b) the droplet collection, dehydration, and microparticle characterization devices (side view).

TABLE 1 Physical properties of aqueous GDL solutions used during experiments and HP 60 black ink for comparison (n = 3, mean ± one standard deviation)

Solution	Density (g/mL)	Viscosity (cP)
1% GDL	1.005 ± 0.001	1.026 ± 0.002
2.5% GDL	1.009 ± 0.002	1.051 ± 0.008
5% GDL	1.018 ± 0.002	1.123 ± 0.005
7.5% GDL	1.029 ± 0.003	1.214 ± 0.004
10% GDL	1.035 ± 0.003	1.298 ± 0.001
12.5% GDL	1.048 ± 0.003	1.403 ± 0.007
15% GDL	1.055 ± 0.002	1.517 ± 0.004
17.5% GDL	1.067 ± 0.002	1.647 ± 0.007
20% GDL	1.078 ± 0.002	1.794 ± 0.006
Black Ink	1.043 ± 0.012	2.918 ± 0.003

TABLE 2 Paper type and print quality settings investigated for effect on printed aerosol characteristics (* indicates tested experimental condition, N/A indicates setting not available)

	Print Quality
Paper Type	Fast Draft	Normal	Best	Maximum dpi
Plain	*	*	*	N/A
Photo	N/A	*	*	*
Inkjet	N/A	*	*	N/A
Transparency	N/A	*	N/A	N/A

FIG. 2 Mean APS size-distribution results for microparticles created by printing aqueous solutions with varying GDL concentrations demonstrate particle size tunability by varying solute concentration (n ≥ 2, error bars are one standard deviation).

FIG. 3 Mean microparticle aerodynamic diameters generated using various GDL concentrations in the printed aqueous solutions in comparison to theoretical particle diameters from droplets 30 μm in diameter produced using the same GDL solutions (n ≥ 2, error bars are one standard deviation). Note separate y-axes for the experimental and theoretical results.

FIG. 4 Mean microparticle size-distribution Gaussian fit results showing increasing distribution maximum positions with increasing GDL concentration and comparable size-distribution width for all GDL solutions (n ≥ 2). The mean particle counts for all samples are normalized to one for comparison. (Color figure available online.)

TABLE 3 Microparticle size-distribution resolutions for all tested GDL solutions, indicating considerable overlap among the different size-distributions

	10%	12.5%	15%	17.5%	20%
	GDL	GDL	GDL	GDL	GDL
7.5% GDL	0.0224	0.0710	0.0981	0.1311	0.1590
10% GDL		0.0503	0.0781	0.1104	0.1389
12.5% GDL			0.0275	0.0556	0.0835
15% GDL				0.0263	0.0541
17.5% GDL					0.0296

TABLE 4 The number of cartridge carriage passes and time expended by the modified inkjet printer to execute the same print job to generate aerosols using various paper type and print quality software settings (n = 3, mean ± one standard deviation)

		Number of
Printer software		cartridge
setting	Printing time (s)	passes
Plain, fast draft	2.5 ± 0.5	6
Plain, normal	6.6 ± 0.1	20
Plain, best	26.8 ± 0.7	41
Photo, normal	57.8 ± 1.0	83
Photo, best	104.7 ± 0.4	123
Photo, maximum dpi	223.1 ± 0.3	174
Inkjet, normal	32.3 ± 0.2	62
Inkjet, best	51.4 ± 0.3	62
Transparency, normal	51.4 ± 0.4	62

FIG. 5 Mean size-distribution results from APS measurements of microparticles generated by printing 15% GDL solution using (a) plain paper, (b) photo paper, (c) inkjet paper, and (d) transparency film settings along with the associated print quality settings available in the commercial printer software (n ≥ 3, error bars are one standard deviation).

FIG. 6 Mean microparticle size-distribution Gaussian fit results for 15% GDL solution printed using different paper type and print quality settings (n ≥ 3), arranged in ascending order according to mean FWHM value. The mean particle counts for all samples are normalized to one, and all size-distribution maxima are aligned to zero for comparison. These results demonstrate the ability to tune the width of the generated microparticle size-distribution by altering the commercial printer software settings used during production. (Color figure available online.)

TABLE 5 Size-distribution resolutions for microparticles created using various printer settings, indicating substantial overlap among the different size-distributions

	Plain,	Plain,	Photo,	Photo,	Photo,	Inkjet,	Inkjet,	Transparency,
	normal	best	normal	best	maximum dpi	normal	best	normal
Plain, fast draft	0.0374	0.0559	0.0469	0.0418	0.0392	0.0283	0.0390	0.0361
Plain, normal		0.0124	0.0041	0.0028	0.0071	0.0152	0.0041	0.0074
Plain, best			0.0099	0.0191	0.0251	0.0334	0.0199	0.0240
Photo, normal				0.0085	0.0139	0.0229	0.0098	0.0137
Photo, best					0.0053	0.0155	0.0018	0.0058
Photo, maximum dpi						0.0111	0.0032	0.0010
Inkjet, normal							0.0131	0.0094
Inkjet, best								0.0038

FIG. 7 Micrographs taken during SEM analysis showing (a) the large number and overall uniformity of the GDL microparticles produced using the inkjet printer and (b) the size and morphology of individual microparticles, which agrees with the corresponding APS results (c).