Methods and systems for detecting aerosol particles without using complex organic maldi matrices

A method for identifying the composition of one or more of non-biological aerosol particles or biological aerosol particles including water bound to the surface of the particles, the method comprising:

• generating an aerosol particle beam of single particles using an aerosol beam generator;
• using a single continuous laser, in association with a data analysis system:
• indexing each particle in the beam of single particles;
• characterizing optical properties in association with one or more laser scattering devices, wherein the optical properties include one or more of particle size, particle shape, and fluorescence of each indexed particle, and generating optical data;
• and
• selecting which indexed particle is to be ionized;
• triggering an ionization pulse laser generator using the continuous laser to generate an IR laser pulse to ionize and produce ionized fragments of each selected indexed particle when each selected indexed particle reaches an ionization region of the ionization pulse laser;
• analyzing the ionized fragments using a TOFMS detector to generate unique mass spectral data associated with each selected indexed particle;
• and,
• determining the composition of each selected indexed particle by:
• compiling the optical data with unique mass spectral data associated with each selected indexed particle using data fusion;
• and
• comparing the compiled data with a training data set comprising of a knowledge base of known particles to predict composition.

A mass spectrometer system for detecting the composition of one or more of non-biological aerosol particles or biological aerosol particles including water bound to the surface of the particles, the system comprising:

• an aerosol beam generator configured to generate a beam of single aerosol particles;
• a continuous laser generator to generate a single continuous laser, in association with a data analysis system and one or more laser scattering devices, configured to determine optical properties of the aerosol particles and generate optical data;
• a pulse ionization laser generator triggered by the continuous laser, and configured to generate an IR laser pulse to ionize and produce ionized fragments associated with each particle when each particle reaches an ionization region;
• and
• a TOFMS detector configured to analyze the ionized fragments and generate unique mass spectral data associated with each particle, wherein the data analysis system is further configured to:
• compile the optical data with unique mass spectral data associated with each particle using data fusion;
• and
• compare the compiled optical data with a training data set comprising of a knowledge base of known aerosol particles to predict composition.