Abstract
An interlaboratory study of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) certified reference material (CRM) No. 28 Urban Aerosols collected from the filters of a central ventilating system in a building in the Beijing city center from 1996 to 2005 was performed to obtain an information value of the Sr isotopic composition. The Sr isotopic composition was measured using multi-collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) to confirm the CRM’s within- and between-bottle homogeneity, and the results showed a 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.710227 ± 0.000019 (2SD, n = 18). The Sr isotopic compositions were intercompared using thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), which showed good agreement with values obtained at NIES. Subsequently, a consistent 87Sr/86Sr ratio was observed between two dissolution (hotplate vs. high-pressure bomb) and Sr separation (Sr spec resin vs. cation exchange resin) methods. To validate and reproduce the accuracy of our analytical methods, the Sr isotopic compositions of secondary reference materials, JB-1b and JA-2, were also measured. Our results showed that NIES CRM No. 28 is appropriate for the quality control of Sr isotope measurements of particulate matter analyses for environmental and geochemical studies.
Highlights
Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of particles with diverse chemical compositions and sizes
Reproducibility and Accuracy The reproducibility of the Sr isotopic compositions of the NIST SRM 987 was monitored during the study period to validate the analytical stability of our operating conditions
The 87Sr/86Sr isotopic values of JA-2 and JB-1b, same aliquots prepared at National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), showed 0.706311 ± 0.000007 and 0.706325 ± 0.000007 for JA-2, and 0.704083 ± 0.000007 and 0.704084 ± 0.000006 for JB-1b at Kumamoto University (Table 2)
Summary
Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of particles with diverse chemical compositions and sizes. The chemical compositions vary depending on their source (natural vs anthropogenic), environmental condition (e.g., temperature, humidity, and redox condition), and atmospheric processing (e.g., radiation, convection, and transport). PM emissions from urban and industrial areas are a critical environmental problem that affects the climate, human health, visibility, biogeochemical cycles, and atmospheric chemistry. Recent studies have assessed the utility of strontium (Sr) isotopes 87Sr/86Sr to identify sources of atmospheric PM (e.g., Capo et al, 1998; Kanayama et al, 2002; Grousset and Biscaye, 2005; Lahd Geagea et al, 2008; Widory et al, 2010; Duarte et al, 2017). Sr has four natural isotopes: 84Sr, 86Sr, 87Sr/86Sr Isotope of NIES CRM
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