Sampling studies, aerosol

Dusts are mostly derived from Asian continent in winter to spring and marine contributions are in general not important for the aerosol samples studied over Jeju Island (r = 0.51 for both the aerosol concentrations and Na). 

Denmark 1.5 days after the explosion. Air samples collected at Roskilde, Denmark on April 27-28, contained a mean air concentration of 241Am of 5.2 pBq/m3 (0.14 fCi/m3). In May 1986, the mean concentration was 11 pBq/m3 (0.30 fCi/m3) (Aarkrog 1988). Whereas debris from nuclear weapons testing is injected into the stratosphere, debris from Chernobyl was injected into the troposphere. As the mean residence time in the troposphere is 20-40 days, it would appear that the fallout would have decreased to very low levels by the end of 1986. However, from the levels of other radioactive elements, this was not the case. Sequential extraction studies were performed on aerosols collected in Lithuania after dust storms in September 1992 carried radioactive aerosols to the region from contaminated areas of the Ukraine and Belarus. The fraction distribution of241 Am in the aerosol samples was approximately (fraction, percent) organically-bound, 18% oxide-bound, 10% acid-soluble, 36% and residual, 32% (Lujaniene et al. 1999). Very little americium was found in the more readily extractable exchangeable and water soluble and specifically adsorbed fractions. 

An obvious limitation to the use of bulk analysis studies is the direct result of sample heterogeneity. Not only do aerosol samples show wide variability in the physico-chemical characteristics of different particles, but even a single airborne particle may be highly heterogeneous. With regard to the latter, the surface chemical composition of a particle may bear little resemblance to that of its interior (11-14). 

Source contributions assigned to the same aerosol sample have varied greatly in intercomparison studies (23) but, without the intermediate particle property classifications, it is impossible to ascribe the differences to the analytical portion or to the source assignment portion of the process. 

Dibenzo[a,/]pyrene, a potent mutagen in the MCL-5 assay, was not detected in this analysis of SRM 1649. However, this 6-ring PAH XXIX was identified (but not quantified) by comparison to an authentic standard by Allen and co-workers (1998) in their analysis of size-segregated aerosols in urban Boston ambient air. Furthermore, in their August 1994 study of biologically active, particle-associated PAHs in ambient Riverside, California, Atkinson and Arey (1997) measured concentrations of 18, 20, and 15 pg m-3 of this compound for one daytime and two nighttime sampling events, respectively. These concentrations were 40-50% of the BaP concentrations in the same aerosol samples. 

Effects of carrier gas flow rate, dilution flow rate, and the combustion boat temperature were studied by sampling the aerosol stream with an electrical aerosol analyzer to obtain the particle size distribution. Filter samples were taken for chemical analysis to determine mass concentrations. Aerosol samples were also collected in an electrostatic sampler for electron microscopic examination. 

Three filtering media commercially available from Millipore Corporation were evaluated for the collection of airborne particulates of the organoarsenical compounds. These were (l) cellulose ester membranes (2) Fluoropore and (3) Mitex. The cellulose ester membrane filters (0.8 ym pore size) are the standard Millipore filters used for aerosol sampling and consist of a mixture of cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate. The Fluoropore filters are made of Teflon (PTFE) and are bonded to a polyethylene net. Fluoropore filters with a pore size of 1.0 ym were selected for this study. 

The ability of currently used aircraft probes to accurately sample aerosols has been questioned. Huebert et al. (8) conducted a comparative study of several different types of aerosol probes, all mounted on the same aircraft. The results suggested that substantial losses of particles occurred in all of the inlet systems. Because of the limited nature of the study, however, the causes of the aerosol losses could not be identified. The results of the Huebert study prompted a workshop to reexamine the entire issue of aerosol sampling from aircraft (9). An important conclusion of the workshop was that currently there is insufficient knowledge to adequately describe important characteristics of airflow and particle trajectories at flight speeds of aerosol sampling probes used on aircraft. 

The fact that fine atmospheric particles are enriched in a number of toxic trace species has been known since the early 1970s. Natusch and Wallace (20, 21) observed that the fine particles emitted by a variety of high-temperature combustion sources follow similar trends of enrichment with decreasing particle size as observed in the atmosphere, and they hypothesized that volatilization and condensation of the trace species was responsible for much of the enrichment. Subsequent studies of a number of high-temperature sources and fundamental studies of fine-particle formation in high-temperature systems have substantiated their conclusions. The principal instruments used in those studies were cascade impactors, which fractionate aerosol samples according to the aerodynamic size of the particles. A variety... 

Modified filter sampling methods that are available will measure ambient levels of strong acid in ambient aerosol samples, and these methods do so with acceptable precision and accuracy [as indicated by the balance between measured anions and cations (56, 57)] in the absence of significant levels of particulate weak acids. Additional intercomparisons involving intrinsically different techniques for particulate strong acidity [e.g., IR spectroscopy (48), thermal speciation (38, 45), and filter methods (28)] are needed. Further information on the occurrence of various weak acids in airborne particles is needed, along with further studies of techniques for their specific determination in atmospheric aerosol samples. 

Measurements of the air mobility spectrum seem to add considerable information toward an understanding of aerosol formation and growth at sizes below a few nanometers. Hence, to characterize nucleation mechanisms more precisely, such data should be included in experimental designs. Lagrangian aerosol sampling techniques would also be favored, since this approach can yield data on microphysical evolution without the complicating effects of a changing air mass. Further laboratory studies should be undertaken to quantify the thermodynamic data that define ion properties under tropospheric conditions, at ion sizes and compositions relevant to aerosol nucleation. The sparseness of such data imposes a limitation on our ability to quantify ion-based nucleation mechanisms [19,33],... 

Several compounds were also found to have a seasonal distribution. Kubatova et al. (2002) found that concentrations of lignin and cellulose pyrolysis products from wood burning were higher in aerosol samples collected during low-temperature conditions. On the other hand, concentrations of dicarboxylic acids and related products that are believed to be the oxidation products of hydrocarbons and fatty acids were highest in summer aerosols. PAHs, which are susceptible to atmospheric oxidation, were also more prevalent in winter than in summer. These results suggest that atmospheric oxidation of VOCs into secondary OAs and related oxidative degradation products are key factors in any OA mass closure, source identification, and source apportionment study. However, additional work is much desirable to assess the extent and seasonal variation of these processes. 

Heightened interest on air reactions that can be associated with C cycle and climate changes include NOM compounds. Therefore, there are demands for characterization and reaction mechanisms of NOM in aerosols from different origins, namely, urban, rural, from biomass burning, and others. On that account, spectroscopic techniques, combined with adequate sample preparation methods, could bring additional insights into aerosol research studies. 

Certainly it is possible to apply also other display methods for the visualization of such complex environmental data, as particulate emissions. TREIGER et al. [1993 1994] describe the study of different aerosol samples by nonlinear mapping of electron probe microanalysis data. Different interpretable groups of chemical elements which determine the composition of aerosol samples can be obtained. More recent work by WIENKE and HOPKE [1994] and WIENKE et al. [1994] discuss the combination of different chemometric techniques for better graphical representation of aerosol particle data. The authors use receptor modeling with a minimal spanning tree combined with a neural network. 

Before the 1960 s, the analysis of toxic elements in airborne materials employed separations and colorimetric determination for single-element problems, or spectrographic methods for multielement, multisample studies. Variable matrices in most aerosols sampled had prevented sensitive, but interference-prone, flame-emission methods from attaining much usage. The increased concern over the environmental effects of toxic elements in the late 1960 s resulted in a need for greater sensitivity and ease of operation in measurements of these elements. The many laboratories with increased responsibilities found AAS most useful because of its accuracy, sensitivity, and relative lack of matrix effects, plus the low cost of the equipment. 

The theory of deposition on fibers, or cylinders, lying transverse to the direction of airflow has been studied thoroughly [9,28-32]. Fiber filters have been placed in specialized pharmaceutical aerosol sampling tubes that can... 

The experiments were made in a 10-ft- gas holder. In the flow reactor studies, a mixture of NO in nitrogen wa.s added at a constant rate to a stream of coal gas entering the holder. Aerosol samples were withdrawn from the center of the gas holder, and the particles were... 

An important result from aerosol chamber studies was the discovery of the indirect photochemical process. Thus, Bricard et al. (1968) found that intense aerosol particle production can be observed in the chamber in the dark if ambient filtered air is sampled from a sunlit atmosphere. It is speculated that in the atmosphere some gaseous substance is excited by sunlight and is not collected by the filter used to obtain air which is free of aerosol particles. In the chamber these photochemically excited molecules initiate secondary thermal reactions leading to the formation of some supersaturated vapour (e.g. H,S04) which subsequently condenses (see also Subsection 3.6.3). 

For studies of the atmospheric aerosol, the particles are collected on filters or impactor plates. Although the original definition refers to particles and carrier medium taken together, it is now customary to apply the term aerosol more broadly and to include also deposits of particulate matter. We thus speak of aerosol samples, aerosol mass, etc., a usage... 

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