Effect of Semivolatile Material on PM 2.5 Measurement by the PM 2.5 Federal Reference Method Sampler at Bakersfield, California

Abstract

The chemical composition of ne particulate material was determined for samples collected in Bakers eld, CA, during FebruaryMarch, 1998 using several diffusion denuder samplers, including the PC-BOSS, which measures both semivolatile ne particulate nitrate and organic material. An average of 56% of the ne particulate carbonaceous material was lost from the lters of the Particle Concentrator-Brigham Young University Organic Sampling System (PC-BOSS). A comparable amount of ne particulate semivolatile organic material was also lost from collected particles with single lter samplers, such as the PM 2:5 Federal Reference Method. The fraction of nitrate lost from collected particles was a function of temperature and humidity, with the biggest effect being due to temperature. The fraction of nitrate lost was comparable for conventional annular denuder samplers and the PM 2:5 FRM, averaging 33%. The nitrate loss from particles for the PC-BOSS was smaller, averaging 11%, possibly due to the concentration of particulate material prior to collection with this sampler. The loss of nitrate and semivolatile organic material during sample collection resulted in the PM 2:5 FRM sampler giving PM 2:5 mass that was an average of 30% (7.3 ¹g/m 3 ) lower than the true value and different from the true value from negligible to 20 ¹g/m 3 .

U.S. National PM2.5Chemical Speciation Monitoring Networks—CSN and IMPROVE: Description of networks

“…Loss of semivolatile ammonium nitrate also has been well documented (e.g., Hering and Cass, 1999;Clark, 2002b;Pang et al, 2002;Ashbaugh et al, 2004a;White et al, 2005;Yu et al, 2006;, and references within). Ammonium nitrate artifact (loss), related to nitrate only, is minimized in these networks by the use of a denuder-reactive filter (nylon) pair (Table 5; Solomon et al, 1992, Solomon et al, 2003Hering et al, 2004;Chow et al, 2005b).…”

“…When sampling atmospheric particles, artifacts are typically due to collection of gases on a sampling substrate or volatilization of sample already collected. Determining the impact of an artifact on the measurement may be complicated (e.g., Chow, 1995;Hering and Cass, 1999;Solomon et al, 2000;Turpin et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2001;Pang et al, 2002;Ashbaugh et al, 2004aAshbaugh et al, , 2004bSubramanian et al, 2004;Chow et al, 2005aChow et al, , 2005bKim et al, 2005;White et al, 2005;Yu et al, 2006;Watson et al, 2009;Chow et al, 2010;Maimone et al, 2011). Sampling artifacts are primarily associated with semivolatile components in organic carbon and ammonium nitrate.…”

Particle Collection Characteristics of a Prototype Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) for a Differential TEOM System

“…A FRM is one of many potential methods that would produce different measured values depending on the thermodynamic treatment of the filter in the method. There is an unfortunate dichotomy between regulatory and scientific measurements, because the regulatory reference method cannot be considered as a reference standard in the scientific sense since it shows significant losses of semivolatile material (Hering and Cass 1999;Pang et al 2002).…”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Particulate Matter Supersites Program: An Integrated Synthesis of Scientific Findings and Policy- and Health-Relevant Insights

“…Results from the Supersites Program and related studies, operating in multiple locations under a wide range of conditions, continue to reaffirm that the FRM is prone to loss of semi-volatile components (i.e., ammonium nitrate [NH 4 NO 3 ], semi-volatile organic carbon [SVOC]) (e.g., Hering and Cass, 27 Pang et al, 28 Solomon et al, 26 Long et al, 29 Jaques et al, 30 Lee et al, 31 Chow et al, 32 Grover et al, 33 Schwab et al, 34 Wilson et al, 35 Zhu et al, 533 and references within these publications). Because cool, humid conditions tend to stabilize semi-volatile material (SVM), 35 larger losses are observed in the summer (almost no loss in the winter) and during the day.…”