What are aerosols?
An aerosol is a collection of solid particles or liquid droplets dispersed in air. Examples include smoke, fog, sea spray and pollution particles from vehicles. Particle sizes can range from the nanometre (a millionth of a millimetre) to the millimetre scale. Aerosols influence health, visibility, and global climate and find technological application in the delivery of drugs to the lungs, the engineering of nanostructures through spray drying, and the delivery of fuels for combustion.
As well as addressing some of the challenges faced in understanding the properties of aerosols, we use aerosols to study some broader ranging fundamental topics in physical chemistry/chemical physics.
Bristol Aerosol Research Centre
Research at the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre (BARC) is focussed on improving our understanding of the physical and chemical properties of aerosols at a single particle level. We use advanced techniques to capture and manipulate individual particles, 400 nm to 100 μm in diameter, using light or charge and probe processes occurring on timescales spanning from microseconds to days. As well as addressing some of the challenges faced in understanding the properties of aerosols, we use aerosols to study some broader ranging fundamental topics in physical chemistry/chemical physics.
BARC is made up of researchers from the UK, Canada, the US, South Korea, Italy and Spain. Find out about joining BARC.