Abstract

24-hr integrated measurements of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in PM2.5 were made between May 5 and September 25, 2010, on a six-day interval basis, at the Metropolitan Area Air Pollution Monitoring Supersite. A macro-porous XAD7HP resin was used to separate hydrophilic and hydrophobic WSOC. Compounds that penetrate the XAD7HP column are referred to hydrophilic WSOC, while those retained by the column are defined as hydrophobic WSOC. Laboratory calibrations using organic standards suggest that hydrophilic WSOC includes lowmolecular aliphatic dicarboxylic acids and carbonyls with less than 4 or 5 carbons, amines, and saccharides. While the hydrophobic WSOC is composed of compounds of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with carbon numbers larger than 4~5, phenols, aromatic acids, cyclic acid, and humic-like Suwannee River fulvic acid. Over the entire study period, total WSOC accounted for on average 48% of OC, ranging from 32 to 65%, and hydrophilic WSOC accounted for on average 30.5% (9.3~66.7%) of the total WSOC. Based on the previous results, our measurement result suggests that significant amounts of hydrophobic WSOC during the study period were probably from primary combustion sources. However, on June 9 when 1-hr highest ozone concentration of 130 ppb was observed, WSOC to OC was 0.61, driven by increases in the hydrophilic WSOC. This result also suggests that processes, such as secondary organic aerosol formation, produce significant levels of hydrophilic WSOC compounds that add substantially to the fine particle fraction of the organic aerosol.

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