On the identification of carbonaceous aerosols via 14C accelerator mass spectrometry, and laser muprobe mass spectrometry

Abstract

Carbon isotopic measurements ( 12C, 14C), derived from chemical measurements of total carbon plus AMS measurements of 14C/ 12C have become an accepted means for estimating fossil and contemporary carbon source contributions to atmospheric carbon. Because of the limited sensitivity of these techniques, however, such measurements are restricted to “bulk” samples comprising at least 10–100 μg of carbon. Laser microprobe mass spectrometry (LMMS) offers an important complementary opportunity to investigate the chemical nature of individual particles as small as 0.1 μm in diameter. Although there is little hope to measure 14C/ 12C in such small samples, the compositional and structural information available with the laser microprobe is of interest for possible source discrimination. Also, the analysis of individual particles, which may reflect individual sources, yields significant potential increases in spatial, temporal and source resolution, in comparison to bulk sample analysis. Results of our exploratory investigation of known sources of carbonaceous particles, using LMMS, are presented. By applying multivariate techniques to laser mass spectra of soot from the combustion of heptane and wood, we found striking differences in the alkali metals (notably potassium) in the positive ion mass spectra. For ambient particles, 14C has proved to be a crucial adjunct for the development and validation of the LMMS approach to single particle source assignment via carbon cluster pattern recognition. The combined techniques offer great promise for objective modeling (number and types of carbon sources) and for extension of the dichotomous carbon apportionment (fossil, contemporary) to subclasses such as soot from wood and agricultural burning, and that from coal and petroleum combustion.