Driving a portable high resolution nanoDMA with a small battery-operated vacuum cleaner blower

•Battery operated vacuum cleaner pumps have high electrical and aerodynamic efficiencies.•The blower from the Roomba 500 vacuum drives a DMA at 200 l/min using 12.5 W.•An unusually light DMA powering system for nanometer particles and ions has been assembled.

The development of efficient blowers for battery-operated vacuum cleaners is exploited to increase the portability of high resolution DMAs. A Halfmini DMA run by the blower of the iRobot Roomba 500 powered by a variable DC voltage is tested with electrosprayed molecular ions and the serum albumin protein. Sheath gas flow rates Q from 13 L/min up to 200 L/min are controlled, consuming from 0.28 to 12.5 W of electrical power. A pack of 6 Li batteries with 3.4 Ah charge capacity would run the DMA blower at 200 L/min for 6.5 h. The tetraheptylammonium ion monomer peak was completely resolved from the dimer ion even at Q=13 L/min, when it was classified at 10 V.