Seasonal Variation of Carbonaceous Species of PM2.5 in a Small City in Sichuan Basin, China

Abstract

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) concentrations were measured in daily PM2.5 samples collected over four non-consecutive months representing four seasons from 2016 to 2017 in a small city in the east of Sichuan Basin. The average concentrations of OC and EC during the study periods were observed to be 15.5 ± 13.5 and 5.2 ± 4.7 μg∙m−3, respectively, both with the highest in winter. The OC and EC correlated well in fall and winter, implying that OC and EC were attributed to common emission sources. The estimated secondary OC (SOC) represented 37.2%, 46.7%, 26.9%, and 40.7% of the OC in spring, summer, fall, and winter, respectively. The highest concentration of SOC was found in winter, while the proportion of SOC/OC was highest in summer. Strong correlations were observed between OC vs. K+ and EC vs. K+ in fall and winter, suggesting that biomass burning was a significant source of carbonaceous aerosols. Four sources of OC and EC were resolved by the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model, including coal combustion (5.5% and 12.1%), building and road dust (19.7% and 18.1%), biomass burning (38.7% and 33.1%), and vehicle emission (36.1% and 36.7%), respectively. The potential source contribution function (PSCF) analysis signified that the main source areas of OC and EC were distributed in or nearby Wanzhou.