Using Polyurethane Foam-Based Passive Air Sampling Technique to Monitor Monosaccharides at a Regional Scale

Abstract

Monosaccharides are important tracers of pollution aerosol from biomass burning. Air sampling of monosaccharides is often conducted using active samplers. However, applicability of sampling monosaccharides using polyurethane foam passive air samplers (PUF−PASs) has not been investigated, since passive air samplers are often applied to monitor semivolatile organic contaminants in large scale and remote area. Our study successfully collected atmospheric monosaccharides using PUF−PASs, providing a valuable tool for monosaccharides sampling. PUF−PAS sampling rates for individual monosaccharides were calibrated using an active sampler for 92 days, and were 1.1, 1.5, and 1.1 m 3 /d for levoglucosan, mannosan, and galactosan, respectively. Degradation of monosaccharides in PUF−PAS was demonstrated to be negligible by spike test of 13 C-labeled levoglucosan. Furthermore, passive sampling was carried out at 11 sites in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China from January to April and July to September of 2015. Monosaccharide concentrations derived from PUF−PASs were comparable with the reported data obtained by active sampling, demonstrating that the PUF−PAS approach is valid for monosaccharides monitoring. On the basis of our approach, we found that there is a clear correlation between the monosaccharide concentrations and the MODIS fire activities during January−April.

Fossil and Non-fossil Fuel Sources of Organic and Elemental Carbonaceous Aerosol in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou: Seasonal Carbon Source Variation

“…As shown in Fig. 1, air masses arrived from the north of Guangdong, Hunan and Guizhou Provinces, where a large amount of biomass, including agricultural waste and hard wood, was burned for cooking and domestic heating during the cold, dry winter (Jiang et al, 2018). This carbon source characterization matches that reported for regional-scale haze events in a previous study (Liu et al, 2014).…”

Determining the Sources and Transport of Brown Carbon Using Radionuclide Tracers and Modeling

“…The methods used for the analysis of DOM, organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC; Chen et al., 2017; Cheng et al., 2012; Jiang et al., 2020), water‐soluble ions (Na + , NH 4 + , K + , Cl − , SO 4 2− , NO 3 − ) (Mo et al., 2018, 2017), monosaccharides (levoglucosan, mannosan, galactosan) (Jiang et al., 2018), organic tracers of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) (Li et al., 2013), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and n‐alkanes (Geng et al., 2020; Mao et al., 2018) were similar to those reported in previous studies and details are provided in Text and Table . Approximately 1/20 of the total mass of DOM was transferred and brought to a volume of 15 mL.…”

Passive air sampling for semi-volatile organic chemicals

“…Studies involving networks of PASs in a region are also very common and have been conducted around the world (Table 15). A region can be an administrative unit, such as a Chinese province 251,[346][347][348] or an Italian region [349][350][351] or it could be a country's coastal area [352][353][354][355] or an entire or partial watershed. [356][357][358][359] These types of studies have almost exclusively relied upon the PUF-PAS, with a few exceptions.…”

“…Occasionally, more unusual target substances have been studied, such as short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) in the Yangtze River Delta 360 or three monosaccharides in the province of Guangdong. 251 While many studies only sampled for one or two periods, some seek to observe temporal patterns by sampling during multiple seasons. The number of sampling sites varies widely and ranges from as little as three to more than 30.…”