High time-resolution chemical characterization of the water-soluble fraction of ambient aerosols with PILS-TOC-IC and AMS

Abstract

Abstract.A particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) was coupled with a total organic carbon analyzer (TOC) and two ion chromatographs (IC) to enable high time-resolution measurements of water-soluble ions and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) by a single sampling and analytical setup. The new high time-resolution measurement system, the PILS-TOC-IC, was able to provide essential chemical and physical information about fast changes in composition, concentrations and likely sources of the water-soluble fraction of atmospheric aerosol. The concentrations of major watersoluble ions and WSOC were measured by the PILS-TOC-IC system from 25 April to 28 May 2009.The data of the PILS-TOC-IC setup was compared with the data from the High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) data measured from 25 April to 8 May 2009. The measured water-soluble particulate organic matter (WSPOM) concentration varied typically from 0.10 to 8.8 µg m −3 (on average 1.5 µg m −3 ). The WSPOM contributed on average 51% to particulate organic matter (POM) measured with the AMS. The correlation between the data of all the online measurement devices (AMS, PILS-TOC-IC, semicontinuous EC/OC carbon analyzer and TEOM) was excellent. For sulfate, nitrate and ammonium the correlations between the PILS-TOC-IC and AMS were 0.93, 0.96 and 0.96, respectively. The correlation between WSPOM and POM was also strong (r = 0.88). The identified sources of WSPOM were long-range transported biomass burning and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. WSPOM and oxalate produced in biomass burning were clearly correlated with carbon monoxide.

Online determination of levoglucosan in ambient aerosols with particle-into-liquid sampler – high-performance anion-exchange chromatography – mass spectrometry (PILS–HPAEC–MS)

“…An extensive review of the previously reported PILS campaigns has been presented in Timonen et al (2010), where the principle of the PILS was also given. The schematic diagram of the sampling system and the analysis apparatus used in the present study is presented in Fig.…”

“…PILS enables the online analysis of the collected samples with several analytical devices, such as ion chromatographs (IC), analyzers for water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), or liquid wavelength capillary cell and absorbance spectrophotometry (e.g., Orsini et al, 2003;Sullivan et al, 2004;Rastogi et al, 2009;Timonen et al, 2010). Also an application of the online coupling of the PILS with a solid-phase extraction to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry has been presented for the analysis of organic acids in aerosols (Parshintsev et al, 2010).…”

Technical Note: The application of an improved gas and aerosol collector for ambient air pollutants in China

“…The description of HR-ToF-AMS is available in previous publications (DeCarlo et al, 2006;Timonen et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2011). A PM 1 cyclone was used as the AMS inlet to remove coarse particles and introduced sampled air into the instrument through a copper tube with a flow rate of 10 l min −1 and the AMS sampled isokinetically from the center of the copper tube at a flow rate of 80 ml min −1 .…”

Identification and Chemical Characteristics of Distinctive Chinese Outflow Plumes Associated with Enhanced Submicron Aerosols at the Gosan Climate Observatory

“…Inside the PILS aerosols grow continuously in an environment that is supersaturated by generating water vapor. A 0.05-ppbv lithium bromide solution (Sigma Aldrich, USA) was pumped into the head of the PILS at 0.37 mL min -1 as the internal standard for calculating the dilution factor (Timonen et al, 2010). The dilution factor ranged from 1.0 to 1.3 for the entire experiment (Appendix 1).…”