Background: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) were applied on PM10 particle data in order to: identify particle clusters that can be differentiated on the bases of their chemical composition and morphology, investigate the relationship among the chemical and morphological parameters and evaluate differences among the sampling sites. PM10 was collected in 3 different sites in central Italy characterized by different conditions: yard, urban and rural sites. The concentration of 20 chemical parameters (C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, Cd, Cl, K, Ca, Sn, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) were determined by Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and the particle images were processed by an image analysis software in order to measure: Area, Aspect Ratio, Roundness, Fractal Dimension, Box Width, Box Height and Perimeter.
Result: Results revealed the presence of different clusters of particles, differentiated on the bases of chemical composition and morphological parameters (aluminosilicates, calcium particles, biological particles, soot, cenosphere, sodium chloride, sulphates, metallic particles, iron spherical particles). Aluminosilicates and Calcium particles of rural and urban sites showed a similar nature due to a mainly natural origin, while those of the yard site showed a more heterogeneous composition mainly related to human activity. Biological particles and soot can be differentiated on the bases of the higher loads of Fractal Dimension, which characterizes soot, and content of Na, Mg, Ca, Cl and K which characterize the biological ones. The soot of the urban site showed higher loadings of Roundness and Fractal Dimension than the soot belonging to the yard and rural sites, this was due to the different life time of the particles. The metal particles, characterized mainly by the higher loading of iron, were present in two morphological forms: spherical and angular particles. The first were generated by a fusion process at high temperature, while the second one had crustal origin (those characterized by typical terrigenous elements) and also human origin.
Conclusion: In this work a protocol for the morphological-chemical characterization of single particles has been developed. SEM analysis allows to classify particles in 10 different families and PCA and HCA have provided information about the sources of PM and similarities and differences among the sites.