Single-particle volatility and implications for brown carbon absorption in Beijing, China

Jiaxing Sun; Yan Li; Weiqi Xu; Wei Zhou; Aodong Du; Lei Li; Xubing Du; Fugui Huang; Zhijie Li; Zhiqiang Zhang; Zifa Wang; Yele Sun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158874

Single-particle volatility and implications for brown carbon absorption in Beijing, China

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 1:854:158874. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158874. Epub 2022 Sep 17.

Authors

Jiaxing Sun¹, Yan Li¹, Weiqi Xu², Wei Zhou², Aodong Du¹, Lei Li³, Xubing Du³, Fugui Huang⁴, Zhijie Li¹, Zhiqiang Zhang¹, Zifa Wang⁵, Yele Sun⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
³ Institute of Mass Spectrometer and Atmospheric Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for On-Line Source Apportionment System of Air Pollution, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁴ Guangzhou Hexin Analytical Instrument Company Limited, Guangzhou 510530, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: sunyele@mail.iap.ac.cn.

PMID: 36126710
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158874

Abstract

Aerosol volatility has a substantial impact on gas-particle partitioning, aging process and hence brown carbon (BrC) absorption. Here we analyzed single-particle volatility in winter in Beijing using a thermodenuder coupled with a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer along with a suite of collocated measurements. Our results showed that elemental carbon, metals, organic nitrogen (ON) were the dominant low-volatility components. The ON-containing particles accounting for 50 % of the total low-volatility particles comprised mainly ON-organic carbon (ON-OC) particles which were associated with biomass burning and significantly enhanced during polluted periods with high relative humidity and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) levels. By analyzing the relationship between single-particle volatility and BrC, we found that semi-volatile particles related to fossil fuel combustion contributed dominantly to the light absorption of BrC (~50 %). Comparatively, the low-volatility and semi-volatile particles related to biomass burning contributed 21-35 % and 10-15 %, respectively to the BrC light absorption. Our results demonstrated that single particles from different sources with different volatility showed different impacts on BrC absorption. Although low-volatility organic aerosol accounted only for ~16 % of the total ambient organics, they can contribute as much as ~30-40 % to BrC light absorption in winter in Beijing.

Keywords: Beijing; Brown carbon; Organic nitrogen; Single particles; Volatility.