Chemical characteristics, sources and evolution processes of fine particles in Lin'an, Yangtze River Delta, China

Haoming Yang; Junfeng Wang; Mindong Chen; Dongyang Nie; Fuzhen Shen; Yali Lei; Pengxiang Ge; Tao Gu; Xinyu Gai; Xiangpeng Huang; Qianli Ma

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126851

Chemical characteristics, sources and evolution processes of fine particles in Lin'an, Yangtze River Delta, China

Chemosphere. 2020 Sep:254:126851. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126851. Epub 2020 Apr 21.

Authors

Haoming Yang¹, Junfeng Wang², Mindong Chen³, Dongyang Nie⁴, Fuzhen Shen¹, Yali Lei⁵, Pengxiang Ge¹, Tao Gu¹, Xinyu Gai¹, Xiangpeng Huang¹, Qianli Ma⁶

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China; John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA. Electronic address: wangjunfeng@g.harvard.edu.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China. Electronic address: chenmdnuist@163.com.
⁴ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China; School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
⁵ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
⁶ Lin'an Regional Background Station, Lin'an, 311307, China.

PMID: 32957275
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126851

Abstract

In this study, daily PM_2.5 mass and chemical composition were measure in Lin'an Reginal Background Station, Yangzte River Delta, from March 1, 2018, to February 28, 2019. Organic matter (OM) was found to be the most dominant component in four seasons. The proportions of nitrate in PM_2.5 presented dramatically lowest in warm seasons but highest in winter, indicating that NO₃^- was maily driven by thermodynamics. Regional transportation in winter plays a strong impact on PM_2.5 concentration, which showed the highest average mass of 60.1 μg m^-3. Sulfate occupied a significant portion of PM_2.5 in summer (19%), followed by spring (17%), fall (15%), and winter (12%), respectively, suggesting photochemical processes may play a dominant role in the sulfate formation. Secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA) was the dominant component (70%) in the highest polluted periods (PM_2.5 > 75 μg m^-3), whereas OM decreased into the lowest fraction (22%) of PM_2.5. Nitrate was the most important component in SIA in the highest polluted periods with regarding winter. Source apportionment results shown that winter haze was likely strongly dominated by SIA, which was mainly affected by air masses from the North China Plain and Shang-Hangzhou direction. PM_2.5 is known to play an important role in sunlight absorption and reversing to human health, continuous observation on PM_2.5 species in a background site can help us to evaluate the control policy, and promote our insights to lifetime, formation pathways, health effects of PM_2.5.

Keywords: PM(2.5); Positive matrix factorization; Secondary inorganic aerosol; Yangzte River Delta.

MeSH terms

Aerosols / analysis
Air Pollutants / analysis*
China
Environmental Monitoring*
Humans
Nitrogen Oxides / analysis
Particulate Matter / analysis*
Rivers / chemistry*
Seasons
Sulfates / analysis

Substances

Aerosols
Air Pollutants
Nitrogen Oxides
Particulate Matter
Sulfates