Abstract
AbstractSecondary inorganic aerosol (especially SNA: sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium) formed from different pathways, account for significant proportions of ambient particulate matter during haze events. For the first time, we quantitatively explored contributions from different SNA formation pathways by an online monitoring AMS instrument and 3‐dimension factor analysis PMF3 model, which is called “SNA formation pathway apportionment”. Three formation process were identified: NH4NO3 heterogeneous phase reactions (NH4NO3‐heter), (NH4)2SO4 gas phase reactions ((NH4)2SO4‐gas), and mixed NH4NO3 and (NH4)2SO4 aqueous phase processes (S&N‐aque). Their overall contributions to SNA were 25.7%, 22.1%, and 52.2%, respectively. Moreover, (NH4)2SO4‐gas contributed mainly in clean (52.1%); S&N‐aque got the highest contribution in haze episode (69.6%); while sulfate gas phase formations were also found in haze stage (10.3%). The quantitative findings from this work provide hard evidence that aqueous phase processes (including sulfate aqueous phase reactions and nitrate gas‐particle partition) were major drivers for SNA increasing.
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