In recent years, ozone pollution has been growing increasingly serious in the urban areas of China. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important precursors of O3 formation, which is of great significance to studying the main characteristics and sources of VOCs for controlling O3 pollution. In this study, we conducted online VOCs observation in Zibo City from May to September in 2019, monitoring 56 species in total. During the observation, the over-standard rate of ozone was up to 67.8%, the average of ρ(VOCs) was 140.71 μg·m-3, and the concentration of VOCs in the ozone over standard days was 1.04 times that on the non-standard days. The rank of VOC classes was aromatic hydrocarbons>alkanes>alkenes>alkynes. Among them, 1,3,5-tritoluene, o-ethyltoluene, 1-butene, and n-hexane achieved high emission in the exceeding O3 and non-exceeding days. Aromatic hydrocarbon and alkenes contributed more to the potential of ozone formation. According to the PMF source analysis results, VOCs sources in the urban area mainly included motor vehicle sources, fixed combustion sources, solvent sources, process sources, and natural plant sources, among which motor vehicle sources were the most important source of VOCs in the urban area. In addition, motor vehicle sources accounted for 32.3%, and fixed combustion sources accounted for 24.2% on days when ozone exceeded the standard, which increased by 3.3% and 6.9%, respectively, compared with those on days when ozone did not exceed the standard. However, the proportion of solvent sources and process sources decreased by 5.1% when ozone exceeded the standard compared with that on a non-standard day.
Keywords: PMF source apportionment; ozone (O3); ozone formation potential (OFP); pollution characteristics; volatile organic compounds(VOCs).