Document Details

Document Type : Article In Journal 
Document Title :
Atmospheric behaviour of particulate oxalate at UK urban background and rural sites
حالة حبيبات الأكسالات فى الهواء فى منطقتين أحدهما حضرية مرجعية والأخرى ريفية بالمملكة المتحدة
 
Subject : Enviromental sciences 
Document Language : English 
Abstract : Oxalic acid is widely reported in the literature as one of the major components of organic aerosol. It has been reported as both a product of primary emissions from combustion processes and as a secondary product of atmospheric chemistry. Concentrations of particulate oxalate have been measured at a UK urban site (500 daily samples) and for a more limited period simultaneously at a rural site (100 samples) in the fine (less than 2.5 mu m) and coarse (2.5-10 mu m) size fractions. Full size distributions have also been measured by sampling with a MOUDI cascade impactor. Average concentrations of oxalate sampled over different intervals in PM10 are 0.04 +/- 0.03 mu g m(-3) at the rural site and 0.06 +/- 0.05 mu g m(-3) at the urban background site, broadly comparable with measurements from other European locations. During the period of simultaneous sampling at the urban and rural site, concentrations were very similar and the inter-site correlation in the PM2.5 fraction for oxalate (r = 0.45; p < 0.001) was appreciably weaker than that for sulphate and nitrate (r = 0.82 and 0.84, respectively). Nonetheless, the data clearly point to a predominantly secondary source of oxalate at these sites. Possible contributions from road traffic and woodsmoke appear to be very small. In the larger urban dataset, oxalate in PM2.5 was correlated significantly (p < 0.01) with sulphate (r = 0.60), nitrate (r = 0.48) and secondary organic carbon (r = 0.25). Clustering of air mass back trajectories demonstrates the importance of advection from mainland Europe. The size distribution of oxalate at the urban site showed a major mode at around 0.55 mu m and a minor mode at around 1.5 mu m in the mass distribution. The former mode is similar to that for sulphate suggesting either a similar in-cloud formation mechanism, or cloud processing of oxalate and sulphate after formation in homogeneous reaction processes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 
ISSN : 1352-2310 
Journal Name : ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
Volume : 71 
Issue Number : 1 
Publishing Year : 1434 AH
2013 AD 
Article Type : Article 
Added Date : Wednesday, June 5, 2013 

Researchers

Researcher Name (Arabic)Researcher Name (English)Researcher TypeDr GradeEmail
Bunthoon LaongsriLaongsri, Bunthoon Researcher  
Roy M HarrisonHarrison, Roy M Researcher r.m.harrison@bham.ac.uk

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