Non-fibrous elemental carbon
Elemental carbon, in particular carbon black, is a material commonly used in industry, particularly in making tires, batteries, plastics, inks, etc.
It's also a very common combustion residue, which makes it a nanoparticulate element to which many people are exposed. See in our Nanoparticles dossier “Separating out background noise”.
PARTICLEVER technology can quantify elemental carbon separately from organic carbon using a thermal-optical analyzer, which is the standard instrument for monitoring air quality for carbon.
Particles may also be sampled for electron microscope analysis in order to identify morphological properties that pose a particular danger (nanoparticles, low-density agglomerates, etc.).