Breath particles generated deep within the lung provide noninvasive access to sampling nonvolatiles in peripheral airway lining fluid. However, background contamination, their variable production among subjects, together with a huge unknown dilution when using the common breath condensate method for collection has limited their use for quantitative biomarker analysis. Instead, we first capture and dry the particles in a flexible chamber followed by accurate optical particle characterization during their collection for chemical analysis. By decoupling breathing and aerosol sampling airflows, this sequential approach not only accommodates all types of breathing routines but also enables the use of a variety of aerosol samplers for downstream biomarker analysis. Using