Abstract
An interlaboratory study on the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) certified reference material (CRM) No. 28 Urban Aerosols, collected on the filters of a central ventilating system in a building in Beijing city center, was performed to obtain informative values of Hg isotopic composition and total Hg (THg) mass fraction. The THg mass fraction was determined by four organizations using atomic absorption spectrometry; it resulted in the mean value of 1.19 ± 0.12 mg/kg (2SD, n = 24). The Hg isotopic composition of the CRM was measured and intercompared at two different institutions by cold vapor generation system coupled to multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Subsequently, a conventional dissolution method that uses a mixture of HNO3/HCl/H2O2 in Hotblock® and two different dissolution methods that use a mixture of HNO3/HCl with a microwave and a digestion bomb were applied. The Hg isotopic compositions were δ202Hg = − 1.26 ± 0.17‰, Δ199Hg = − 0.23 ± 0.06‰, Δ200Hg = 0.01 ± 0.07‰, and Δ201Hg = − 0.22 ± 0.09‰ (2SD, n = 18) for the conventional method, which agree well with those obtained using microwave and bomb digestion. Our results indicate that, for the quality control of particulate matter analyses, this CRM is appropriate for use in environmental and geochemical studies.Graphical abstract
Highlights
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Anthropogenic emissions of particulate matters from urban and industrial areas are a critical environmental problem
The presence of K in aerosol samples can be attributed to biomass emissions [1]; that of Si and Ca can be attributed to soil, road, and construction dust; Fe, Mn, and Cu found together can be attributed to minerals used in industrial productions and processes [2]; and the presence of Pb can be associated with emissions from motor vehicles [3]
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) certified reference material (CRM) No 28 Urban Aerosols was produced to evaluate the analytical accuracy of the determination of the mass fraction of selected elements
Summary
Anthropogenic emissions of particulate matters from urban and industrial areas are a critical environmental problem. High concentrations of particulate matter (PM) emissions are attributed to combustion from multiple sources, such as household fuel use, industrial activities, open burnings (such as agricultural and e-waste burnings), and transportationrelated emissions. The other two chemical species, gaseous oxidized Hg (GOM, Hg2+(g)) and particulate-bound Hg (PBM, Hg(p)), are relatively reactive and are efficiently removed from the atmosphere through wet and dry depositions. The atmospheric residence time of GEM is relatively long (~ 1 year) and allows regional and global transportation from emission sources. During such transportation, GEM is converted to GOM and PBM via atmospheric reactions. The global median values at rural sites and high-elevation sites were 4.6–11.0 pg/m3 [5]; Beijing, a megacity, demonstrated considerably higher Hg mass fractions in the collected PM (263 ± 246 pg/m3 at daytime and 280 ± 383 pg/m3 at nighttime [6])
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