In:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 14, No. 5 ( 2021-05-17), p. 3481-3500
Abstract:
Abstract. Carbonaceous aerosol is mainly composed of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC). Both OC and EC originate from a variety of emission
sources. Radiocarbon (14C) analysis can be used to apportion bulk aerosol, OC, and EC into their sources. However, such analyses require
the physical separation of OC and EC. Here, we apply of ECT9 protocol to physically isolate OC and EC for 14C analysis and evaluate its effectiveness. Several reference
materials are selected, including two pure OC (fossil “adipic acid” and contemporary “sucrose”), two pure EC (fossil “regal black” and
“C1150”), and three complex materials containing contemporary and/or fossil OC and EC (“rice char”, NIST urban dust standards “SRM1649a” and “SRM8785”, i.e., fine fraction of resuspended SRM1649a on filters). The pure materials were measured for their OC, EC, and
total carbon (TC) mass fractions and corresponding carbon isotopes to evaluate the uncertainty of the procedure. The average accuracy of TC mass,
determined via volumetric injection of a sucrose solution, was approximately 5 %. Ratios of EC/TC and OC/TC were highly
reproducible, with analytical precisions better than 2 % for all reference materials, ranging in size from 20 to 100 µg C.
Consensus values were reached for all pure reference materials for both δ13C and fraction modern (F14C), with an
uncertainty of 〈 0.3 ‰ and approximately 5 %, respectively. The procedure introduced 1.3 ± 0.6 µg of extraneous
carbon, an amount compatible to that of the Swiss_4S protocol. In addition, OC and EC were isolated from mixtures of pure contemporary OC (sucrose) with pure fossil EC (regal black) and fossil OC (adipic acid)
with contemporary EC (rice char EC) to evaluate the effectiveness of OC and EC separation. Consensus F14C values were reached for all OC
(∼ 5–30 µg) and EC (∼ 10–60 µg) fractions with an uncertainty of ∼ 5 % on average. We found that the
ECT9 protocol efficiently isolates OC or EC from complex mixtures. Based on δ13C measurements, the average contribution of charred
OC to EC is likely less than 3 % when the OC loading amount is less than 30 µg C. Charring was further assessed by evaluating thermograms of various materials, including aerosol samples collected in the Arctic and from tailpipes of gasoline or diesel engines. These data demonstrate that the ECT9 method effectively removes pyrolyzed OC. Thus, the ECT9 protocol, initially developed for concentration and stable isotope measurements of OC and EC, is suitable for 14C-based apportionment studies, including µg C-sized samples from arctic environments.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1867-8548
DOI:
10.5194/amt-14-3481-2021
DOI:
10.5194/amt-14-3481-2021-supplement
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2505596-3
