engleski

Comparison of thermal protocols for the determination of carbon in particulate matter

Daily samples of PM1.0 particulate matter fraction (particles with an aerodynamic diameter below 1 µm) were collected from 1 January to 31 March at an urban background station located at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia. Elemental (EC), organic (OC) and total (TC) carbon, which is the sum of OC and EC, were analyzed by thermal-optical transmittance method by two different thermal protocols (NIOSH-like called QUARTZ (NIOSH - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and EUSAAR_2 (EUSAAR - European Supersites for Atmospheric Aerosol Research) protocol and the results were compared. Mass concentrations of PM1.0 ranged from 4.7 µg m-3 to 58.9 µg m-3. Very good agreement was observed for TC (slope= 1.0, R2 = 0.99) and mass concentrations for both protocols ranged between 2.9 µg m-3 and 21.2 µg m-3. EC mass concentration levels were found to be lower for QUARTZ than for EUSAAR_2, due to the differences in the heating profiles. The EUSAAR_2 protocol with a rather low peak temperature in the inert mode generally classified more carbon as EC compared to the QUARTZ protocol. The slope between ECE2 and ECQ following transmittance correction was 1.5 (R2 = 0.88), while the slope between OCE2 and OCQ was 1.0 (R2 = 0.98).

EC ; EUSAAR_2 protocol ; OC ; PM1.0 ; QUARTZ protocol ; TC ;

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