Associate Research Scientist, Spyros Bezantakos awarded funding by RIF for Online Aerosol Morphology Differentiation and Analysis (ORPHEAS) project

Dr Spyros Bezantakos, Associate Research Scientist at the Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C) of The Cyprus Institute (CyI) has been awarded funding by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) for the project “Online Aerosol Morphology Differentiation and Analysis (ORPHEAS)” under the programme Proof of Concept for Technological and Knowledge Applications (Bridge Programmes). The project was awarded funding of 40.000,00€ with a duration of 9 months, aiming to develop a highly innovative system for the detection of irregularly shaped aerosols and for obtaining information on their structure.

The morphology of aerosol particles is a key parameter for assessing their effects on human health, the environment and their performance in technological applications. Despite that, it is rarely monitored and/or reported in the relevant studies. One reason for this resides on limitations of instruments and methods used for deriving the shape of aerosol particles. In order to overcome these limitations, we will develop a highly innovative system for the detection of irregularly shaped aerosols and for obtaining information on their structure. The proposed system will allow for the detection of fractal-like aerosols and the determination of their morphological properties in quasi real-time, while being simpler, more cost effective and energy efficient compared to existing technologies, offering increased mobility and ability to analyze even very small aerosol particles and at very low number concentrations.

In addition, the proposed system will have the ability of distinguishing the fractal-like aerosols from their spherical counterparts in real time, while providing quantitative information on their number concentration. The proposed system will be easily applicable to indoor/outdoor air quality studies, allowing for a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of impacts of ambient aerosol particles, while it can be also employed for the real-time process monitoring and control in the sector of nanoparticle synthesis for technological applications.

ORPHEAS will enhance the capabilities of the Host Organization in producing and exploiting innovative techniques that can address emerging scientific and social needs of our era, such as the comprehensive characterization of the air quality and how this can affect human health and climate.

Photo: Schematic of the prototype system proposed within the framework of ORPHEAS for the online detection of irregularly shaped/fractal-like aerosols.

The project CONCEPT/0722/0095 is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation.