Organic, elemental and inorganic carbon in particulate matter of six urban environments in Europe

Abstract

Abstract.A series of 7-week sampling campaigns were conducted in urban background sites of six European cities as follows: Duisburg (autumn), Prague (winter), Amsterdam (winter), Helsinki (spring), Barcelona (spring) and Athens (summer). The campaigns were scheduled to include seasons of local public health concern due to high particulate concentrations or findings in previously conducted epidemiological studies. Aerosol samples were collected in parallel with two identical virtual impactors that divide air particles into fine (PM 2.5 ) and coarse (PM 2.5−10 ) size ranges. From the collected filter samples, elemental (EC) and organic (OC) carbon contents were analysed with a thermaloptical carbon analyser (TOA); total Ca, Ti, Fe, Si, Al and K by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF); As, Cu, Ni, V, and Zn by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS); Ca 2+ , succinate, malonate and oxalate by ion chromatography (IC); and the sum of levoglucosan+galactosan+mannosan ( MA) by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS). The campaign means of PM 2.5 and PM 2.5−10 were 8.3-29.6 µg m −3 and 5.4-28.7 µg m −3 , respectively. The contribution of particulate organic matter (POM) to PM 2.5 ranged from 21% in Barcelona to 54% in Prague, while that to PM 2.5−10 ranged from 10% in Barcelona to 27% in Prague. The contribution of EC was higher to PM 2.5 (5-9%) than to PM 2.5−10 (1-6%) in all the six campaigns. Carbonate (C(CO 3 ), that interferes with the TOA analysis, was detected in PM 2.5−10 of Athens and Barcelona but not elsewhere. It was subtracted from the OC by a simple integration method that was validated. The CaCO 3 accounted for 55% and 11% of PM 2.5−10 in Athens and Barcelona, respectively. It was anticipated that combustion emissions from vehicle engines affected the POM conCorrespondence to: M. Sillanpää (markus.sillanpaa@fmi.fi) tent in PM 2.5 of all the six sampling campaigns, but a comparison of mass concentration ratios of the selected inorganic and organic tracers of common sources of organic material to POM suggested also interesting differences in source dominance during the campaign periods: Prague (biomass and coal combustion), Barcelona (fuel oil combustion, secondary photochemical organics) and Athens (secondary photochemical organics). The on-going toxicological studies will clarify the health significance of these findings.

Chemical characterization of the inorganic fraction of aerosols and mechanisms of the neutralization of atmospheric acidity in Athens, Greece

“…A relatively big percentage of it is probably found as CaCO 3 due to the calcitic nature of the crustal rock in Greece which is supported by the results of a recent study (Sillanpää et al, 2005). Similar with Ca 2+ unimodal distribution is observed for NO − 3 , Cl − and Na + , as they are mainly found in the CPM.…”

“…The analyzed FPM mass ranges from 39% to 45% of the total FPM mass, with the exception of Athinas St. in the morning where this percentage appears lower at approximately 29%. Ions such as CO − 3 which has been recently identified in great amounts in the Athens atmosphere (Sillanpää et al, 2005), OH − , lighter elements that PIXE can not successfully analyze, strongly bound water that remains at the low RH of the weighing chamber (Harrison et al, 2003) other mineral compounds (including bound oxygen and nitrogen), as well as carbon, organics and polymers, are believed to constitute the biggest percentage of the unknown part of the PM. According to recent studies (D'Alessandro et al, 2003), these compounds usually constitute more than 50% of the urban aerosol mass.…”

“…Among the studied parameters is the fractionation and spatio-temporal variation of PM mass concentrations in GAA (Chaloulakou et al, 2003;Grivas et al, 2004), the concentrations of organic, elemental and inorganic carbon (Sillanpää and al., 2005) and some toxic metals in the PM (Scheff and Valiozis, 1990;Koliadima et al, 1998;Thomaidis et al, 2003;Manalis et al, 2005;Sillanpää et al, 2006) and of some ionic species in PM 2.5 (Scheff and Valiozis, 1990;Siskos et al, 2001;Sillanpää et al, 2006) and in TSP (Eleftheriadis et al, 1998). In addition to the above, the monitoring network of the Ministry of Environment, Planning and Public Works, has been modernized and since 2000 the mass concentration of PM10 as well as the concentrations of a series of gaseous pollutants, are determined on a daily basis, in a series of sites throughout the city.…”

Carbonaceous aerosols in Norwegian urban areas

“…Zappoli et al (1999); Ricard et al (2002) and Yttri et al (2007a) all presented concentrations observed at rural background sites, while the studies by Viidanoja et al (2002), Sillanpää et al (2005), Glasius et al (2006) and Saarikoski et al (2007) reported observation from the urban environment. Of these studies, only three accounted for the positive sampling artefacts of OC.…”

Technical Note: On the effect of water-soluble compounds removal on EC quantification by TOT analysis in urban aerosol samples

“…The carbonatic carbon component was not considered in this work as previous studies reported that carbonate is negligible in PM 10 at most European areas. Exceptions are coastal sites in south Europe (ten Brink et al, 2004;Sillanpää et al, 2005;Perrone et al, 2011) or peculiar situations (Querol et al, 2009;Cuccia et al, 2011).…”