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The Aerosol Physics team drives research in air quality, combustion emissions, atmospheric aerosols, personal exposure to aerosols, occupational safety, and relevant sampling and measurement techniques. In particular, we focus on the application and development of methods for physical particle characterization and the study of gas-particle distribution of semivolatile organics. A battery of on-line instruments (e.g. for determination of particle number, size and mobility, on-line mass concentration and optical properties) is used - total organic carbon and selected gaseous components are analyzed e.g. with a flame ionization detector and on-line mass spectrometer, respectively. Sampling on impact substrates or filters and selected absorber materials enables further in-depth chemical offline analysis. In addition, sophisticated computer models have been developed and applied to study particle deposition in human lungs, animal models and in vitro incubation systems (ALI = "Air Liquid Interface").

In addition, we support the JMSC with laboratory studies using various particle generators and characterize the generated model aerosol in collaboration with the Aerosol Chemistry group. In several extended off-site measurement campaigns (e.g., at the University of Eastern Finland or at the Faculty of Technology, University of Rostock), aerosol dilution and distribution sampling trains have been set up for ALI exposure studies, adapted analyses, and in-depth characterization of aerosol from different emission sources and artificially aged aerosols.