Microscopy of Combustion Products: Char, Soot, and Ash (1451), Coming: Fall, 2020/Spring 2021

All indoor air quality (IAQ) specialists who identify particulate from air, bulk, and settled dust samples encounter particles with the microscope that are not immediately recognizable and suspected as being the carbonaceous by-products from the combustion of organic matter. Using transmitted polarized light microscopy (PLM) coupled with reflected-light illumination (epi- and oblique), students will learn to study the shape, size, color, transparency, opacity, and other optical properties of combustion products encountered in indoor and outdoor environmental samples.

This three-day course taught at McCrone Research Institute in Chicago is appropriate for microscopists, air-quality specialists, aerobiologists, and industrial hygienists who want to perform presumptive/screening tests with the light microscope for char, soot, ash, and common components of environmental dust (natural and man-made fibers, hair, minerals, wood, metal, rubber, glass, etc.). This course is designed for microscopists who have had training and experience applying the light microscope to small particle analysis.

Class size is limited. For more information, please contact info@mcri.org with “Combustion Products” in the subject line.