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The present study describes the characterization of carbonaceous species including elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), total carbon (TC), crustal (Al, Ca, Mg, Fe, S, and Ti) and trace metals (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn and Zn) in PM 10 samples collected from an urban site in Lahore, Pakistan. Sources of various pollutants and their characterization positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. The carbonaceous species (TC, OC, EC) and metals were measured in PM 10 samples by NIOSH protocol using Sunset lab instruments and ICP-OES respectively. PM 10 concentrations varied from 254 to 555 µg/m 3 with an average of 406 ± 87 µg/m 3 . The elemental carbon (EC) concentration varied from 3 to 56 µg/m 3 with an average of 21 ± 15 µg/m 3 . While the organic carbon (OC) concentrations varied from 21 to 212 µg/m 3 with an average of 63 ± 42 µg/m 3 . The OC/EC ratio varied from 1.5-7.6 with an average of 3.9 ± 1.6, indicating a contribution of both biogenic and secondary aerosol formation. A good correlation was also observed between EC and OC (R 2 = 0.81) indicating their common origin. PMF has identified industrial dust (18.2% of PM 10 ), vehicular emission (26.5% of PM 10 ), bio mass fuel (24.3% of PM 10 ) and re-suspended dust (4.6% of PM 10 ) as major sources of PM 10 in urban environment of Lahore.

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During March and April 2010 aerosol inventories from four large cities in Pakistan were assessed in terms of particle size distributions (N), mass (M) concentrations, and particulate matter (PM) concentrations. These M and PM concentrations were obtained for Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar from N concentrations using a native algorithm based on the Grimm model 1.109 dust monitor. The results have confirmed high N, M and PM concentrations in all four cities. They also revealed major contributions to the aerosol concentrations from the re-suspension of road dust, from sea salt aerosols, and from vehicular and industrial emissions. During the study period the 24 hour average PM(10) concentrations for three sites in Karachi were found to be 461 μg m(-3), 270 μg m(-3), and 88 μg m(-3), while the average values for Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar were 198 μg m(-3), 448 μg m(-3), and 540 μg m(-3), respectively. The corresponding 24 hour average PM(2.5) concentrations were 185 μg m(-3), 151 μg m(-3), and 60 μg m(-3) for the three sites in Karachi, and 91 μg m(-3), 140 μg m(-3), and 160 μg m(-3) for Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, respectively. The low PM(2.5)/PM(10) ratios revealed a high proportion of coarser particles, which are likely to have originated from (a) traffic, (b) other combustion sources, and (c) the re-suspension of road dust. Our calculated 24 hour averaged PM(10) and PM(2.5) concentrations at all sampling points were between 2 and 10 times higher than the maximum PM concentrations recommended by the WHO guidelines. The aerosol samples collected were analyzed for crustal elements (Al, Fe, Si, Mg, Ca) and trace elements (B, Ba, Cr, Cu, K, Na, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sr, Cd, Ti, Zn and Zr). The averaged concentrations for crustal elements ranged from 1.02 ± 0.76 μg m(-3) for Si at the Sea View location in Karachi to 74.96 ± 7.39 μg m(-3) for Ca in Rawalpindi, and averaged concentrations for trace elements varied from 7.0 ± 0.75 ng m(-3) for B from the SUPARCO location in Karachi to 17.84 ± 0.30 μg m(-3) for Na at the M. A. Jinnah Road location, also in Karachi.

The fatty acid composition of tobacco seed oil revealed that the oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, having linoleic acid (71.63%), oleic acid (13.46%) and palmitic acid (8.72%) as the most abundant unsaturated and saturated fatty acids respectively. So the tobacco oil was characterized as semi-drying type on the basis of fatty acid composition. The synthesis of alkyd resin was carried out by alcoholysis or monoglyceride process using an alkali refined tobacco seed oil, pentaerythritol, cis-1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophthalic anhydride along with lithium hydroxide as catalyst. The alkyd resin so prepared was found to be bright and of low color with high gloss. The drying and hardness properties and adhesion of the tobacco seed oil derived alkyd resin were also found a bit superior to those of other alkyd resins of the same oil length. In addition, the water and acid resistance of the said alkyd was also found comparable to the other alkyds.