Elemental analysis of aerosols in Tehran’s atmosphere using PIXE and identification of pollution sources

Abstract

In this study, the proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) technique has been applied to measure the elemental composition and concentrations of particulate matter of 220 samples of aerosols in Tehran's atmosphere within a 450-day time interval starting from March 2009 and ending in June 2010, covering all four seasons. PIXE analysis shows the samples are comprised of various elements including Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, and Pb. Also, to obtain more information about the sources of pollution and to identify the major sources of urban particulate matter, principal component analysis (PCA) was used. Furthermore, micro-PIXE was performed to study individual aerosols in some samples. Results revealed that the concentration of elements originating from vehicle emissions increases three times in winter; whereas the concentration of elements with soil origin remains constant. Based on wind rose maps, it is inferred that the high concentrations of the elements Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Fe are associated with natural dust brought by winds into Tehran from the west.

Atmospheric aerosols analysis and identification of polluting sources in the industrial city of Arak, Iran

“…The total accumulated charge of the particular experiment, detector efficiency, and solid angle are results of such simulation. Determination of atmospheric aerosol elements has been validated by measuring two reference materials (IAEA‐SOIL7 and IAEA‐SL1, lake sediment) in the form of pressed pellets with accuracy better than 5% [8] …”

“…In Islamabad, sources of high TSP value include wind‐blown dust, emissions from stationary fuel combustion, industrial processes, heavy transport, solid waste disposal, and power plants [7] . In Tehran, motor vehicles constitute the most dominant source of pollutants and it is estimated that emissions from mobile sources account for almost 85% of all the air pollution in Tehran [8] . Particulate matter is removed from the atmosphere by wet and dry deposition but there are numerous sources that could affect the level of TSP from site to site and region to region and more data are needed in these areas.…”

“…Several studies have been carried out on the particulate matter based on the characteristic X‐ray spectroscopy techniques in several industrial areas and cities around the world [8–17] . In this field, the ion beam analysis techniques have also been widely used to investigate the fine particulate matter composition [18–23] .…”

An assessment of the impact of construction work on fine particulate matter in the University of Jordan: A PIXE study

“…All elemental concentrations extracted from PIXE analysis were transformed to base‐10 logarithms and used for correlation. The PIXE concentrations were transformed into log concentrations in order to compensate for the differences in magnitude between major elements and trace elements . The results will be the same if logarithms of any base are used.…”