Polar Organic Compounds in Fine Particulate Matter in the NJ-NY-CT Transportation Corridor

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Rutgers University, 2008 - Air - 440 pages
Fine particulate matter has been associated with adverse health effects, reduced visibility, haze and global climate change. Controlling sources of fine particles in urban and rural airsheds requires detailed knowledge of emission sources, including temporal and spatial distributions. Currently, about 20% of the organic mixtures associated with fine particles can be determined quantitatively as individual chemical species. Some compounds can be related to the emission source based on the chemical profile of that source, and are designated as molecular markers. Nonpolar and moderately polar molecular markers are used to apportion airborne fine particles to sources. Polar organic compounds are not well characterized in airsheds due to a wide range of chemical properties that introduce analytical complexity and difficulty. Consequently, emission sources that introduce polar carbonaceous matter into the atmosphere are not well understood and not effectively controlled. High performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were evaluated to determine the optimal method for characterizing polar organic compounds in fine particulate matter samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was chosen due to its capability to analyze a large range of chemical properties in one analysis. Samples were studied from metropolitan New York City area from six receptor locations, including upwind and downwind sites in NY, NJ and CT from May 2002 to February 2007. The results indicated spatial and seasonal trends for the molecular markers. Statistical analysis demonstrated seasonal variations of wood smoke at two sites (Westport, CT and Bronx, NY), meat charbroiling at only one site (Bronx, NY), and levulinic acid at three sites (Westport, CT, Bronx, NY and Pinnacle State Park, NY). When the samples were grouped as urban and rural areas the statistical analysis showed there was no spatial or seasonal trend in levoglucosan, total n-alkanols or levulinic acid. Wood smoke was higher for the NYC metropolitan and suburban sites than for the rural sites and found year-round. The levoglucosan, total n-alkanols, cholesterol, cis-pinonic acid and levulinic acid normalized to elemental carbon did show statistical differences between urban and rural sites, indicating the sites were influenced by local emission sources and meteorological conditions.

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