Dustiness of nanomaterial powders : comparison between the small rotating drum and the vortex shaker methods

The “dustiness” of nanomaterial powders has been tested using several different quantification methods that all involve the application of a given mechanical energy level to a particular amount of powder, whereby nano-objects and their agglomerates and aggregates (NOAA) are aerosolized and measured.
In an aim to develop European standards, a research program (Dustinano) has been launched with the objective to develop a harmonized approach for testing dustiness of nanomaterial in powder form, taking into account four existing test systems used in Europe. In this work, two of them were deployed in two institutes and tested on ten industrial powders: the Small Rotating Drum (SRD) and the Vortex Shaker (VS).
A complete characterization of each powder was carried out with the objective to study substances covering a wide range of physical and chemical parameters and the first results on the two aerosolization systems show a good reproducibility and strong influence of the method.