Deposition of suspended fine particulate matter in a library

Abstract

To analyse deposition of fine particulate matter (PM) on book surfaces we put twelve bunches of cellulose filters on a free shelf of the National Library in Prague, exposed them for three, six, nine, and twelve months to indoor air and analysed them after each period by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Ion Chromatography (IC). Results showed that fine particles were deposited predominantly on the surface of the top filter but partly also on the surfaces of inner filters. It indicates fine particles penetrated between filters. The penetration and deposition of particles was also modelled as Brownian diffusion between two parallel filters. The model prediction demonstrated that fine particles penetrate between filters, with the depth of penetration limited by parallel diffusional deposition on filter surfaces. This is in qualitative agreement with SEM and IC investigations. The results show that beside the top part fine PM can deposit onto all available surfaces of books. © 2013 Smolik et al.; licensee Chemistry Central Ltd.