Bio-aerosol fluorescence - Detecting and characterising bio-aerosols via UV light-induced fluorescence spectroscopy

All aspects of fluorescence from a single or a cluster of bio-aerosol particles are treated in this chapter. The following topics are covered: light sources to induce fluorescence, detectors to sense fluorescence, excitation and emission spectra from simulants of known threat bio-aerosols, standards for monitoring aerosols, performance metrics, generation of dry and wet simulant bio-aerosols, examples of commercially available bio-sensors, techniques for enriching aerosol samples by aerodynamic puffing, and the need for an identifier following the enrichment of aerosols sorted according to the aerosols' fluorescence spectra. There is general agreement that fluorescence is a discriminator capable of separating bio- from non-bio-aerosols; however, an appropriate particle identifier has yet to be fully adapted to the monitoring of threat aerosols in the highly variable atmospheric environment.