New insights into PMsub2.5/sub chemical composition and sources in two major cities in China during extreme haze events using aerosol mass spectrometry

摘要

During winter 2013–2014 aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements were conducted for the first time with a novel PMsub2.5/sub (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ?≤ 2.5 μm) lens in two major cities of China: Xi'an and Beijing. We denote the periods with visibility below 2 km as extreme haze and refer to the rest as reference periods. During the measurements in Xi'an an extreme haze covered the city for about a week and the total non-refractory (NR)-PMsub2.5/sub mass fraction reached peak concentrations of over 1000 μg msup?3/sup. During the measurements in Beijing two extreme haze events occurred, but the temporal extent and the total concentrations reached during these events were lower than in Xi'an. Average PMsub2.5/sub concentrations of 537 ± 146 and 243 ± 47 μg msup?3/sup (including NR species and equivalent black carbon, eBC) were recorded during the extreme haze events in Xi'an and Beijing, respectively. During the reference periods the measured average concentrations were 140 ± 99 μg msup?3/sup in Xi'an and 75 ± 61 μg msup?3/sup in Beijing. The relative composition of the NR-PMsub2.5/sub evolved substantially during the extreme haze periods, with increased contributions of the inorganic components (mostly sulfate and nitrate). Our results suggest that the high relative humidity present during the extreme haze events had a strong effect on the increase of sulfate mass (via aqueous phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide). Another relevant characteristic of the extreme haze is the size of the measured particles. During the extreme haze events, the AMS showed much larger particles, with a volume weighted mode at about 800 to 1000 nm, in contrast to about 400 nm during reference periods. These large particle sizes made the use of the PMsub2.5/sub inlet crucial, especially during the severe haze events, where 39 ± 5 % of the mass would have been lost in the conventional PMsub1/sub (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 1 μm) inlet. A novel positive matrix factorization procedure was developed to apportion the sources of organic aerosols (OA) based on their mass spectra using the multilinear engine (ME-2) controlled via the source finder (SoFi). The procedure allows for an effective exploration of the solution space, a more objective selection of the best solution and an estimation of the rotational uncertainties. Our results clearly show an increase of the oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA) mass during extreme haze events. The contribution of OOA to the total OA increased from the reference to the extreme haze periods from 16.2 ± 1.1 to 31.3 ± 1.5 % in Xi'an and from 15.7 ± 0.7 to 25.0 ± 1.2 % in Beijing. By contrast, during the reference periods the total OA mass was dominated by domestic emissions of primary aerosols from biomass burning in Xi'an (42.2 ± 1.5 % of OA) and coal combustion in Beijing (55.2 ± 1.6 % of OA). These two sources are also mostly responsible for extremely high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations measured with the AMS (campaign average of 2.1 ± 2.0?μg?msup?3/sup and frequent peak concentrations above 10 μg msup?3/sup). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first data set where the simultaneous extraction of these two primary sources could be achieved in China by conducting on-line AMS measurements at two areas with contrasted emission patterns.