Size Distribution and Source Identification of Airborne Particulate Matter and Metallic Elements in a Typical Industrial City

• Main Authors: Mai Tra Ny, Byeong-Kyu Lee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asian Association for Atmospheric Environment 2010-06-01
• Series: Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
• Subjects: size distribution; metallic elements; pca; cluster analysis; correlation
• Online Access: http://asianjae.org/_common/do.php?a=full&b=11&bidx=1586&aidx=19997
• ISSN: 1976-6912; 2287-1160

The size distribution of airborne particulate matter (PM) and the concentrations of associated metallic elements were investigated in a busy urban region of a typical Korean industrial city. The PM concentrations measured during the spring, except for those in the size range of 1.1 to 2.1 μm, were slightly higher than the PM concentrations in the summer. Coarse particles contributed greatly to the variation in PM concentrations in the spring, while fine and submicron particles contributed largely to the variation in PM concentrations in the summer. The difference in size modes of the PM concentrations between spring and summer may be explained by the Asian dust effect and its accompanying wind direction and speed. Extremely high enrichment factors (EFs) values (6,971 to 60,966) for all of the size distributions in PM were identified for cadmium (Cd). High EFs values (12 to 907) were also identified for other heavy metals including Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Mn. Low EF values (0.29 to 8.61) were identified for Ca, K, Mg and Na. These results support the common hypothesis that most heavy metals in ambient PM have anthropogenic sources and most light metals have crustal sources. The results of principal components analyses and cluster analyses for heavy metals indicate that the principal sources of PM and metals were emissions from non-ferrous metal smelters, oil combustion, incinerators, vehicular traffic and road dust.