Stable carbon isotope ratio in atmospheric CO2 collected by new diffusive devices

Abstract

In this paper, stable carbon isotope ratios (δ (13)C) were determined in the atmosphere by using a Ca-based sorbent, CaO/Ca12Al14O33 75:25 w/w, for passively collecting atmospheric CO2, in both field and laboratory experiments. Field measurements were conducted in three environments characterized by different carbon dioxide sources. In particular, the environments under consideration were a rather heavily trafficked road, where the source of CO2 is mostly vehicle exhaust, a rural unpolluted area, and a private kitchen where the major source of CO2 was gas combustion. Samplers were exposed to the free atmosphere for 3 days in order to allow collection of sufficient CO2 for δ(13)C analysis, then the collected CO2 was desorbed from the adsorbent with acid treatment, and directly analyzed by nondispersive infrared (NDIR) instrument. δ (13)C results confirmed that the samplers collected representative CO2 samples and no fractionation occurred during passive trapping, as also confirmed by an appositely designed experiment conducted in the laboratory. Passive sampling using CaO/Ca12Al14O33 75:25 w/w proved to be an easy and reliable method to collect atmospheric carbon dioxide for δ (13)C analysis in both indoor and outdoor places.