Molecular composition and source apportionment of fine organic aerosols in Northeast China

Abstract We examined the characteristics and source apportionment of organic aerosols in ambient PM2.5 samples collected during the late autumn in Changchun, Northeast China. 8 compound classes (>90 individual species) were detected in the aerosol samples, including biomass burning tracers, aliphatic lipids (fatty acids and fatty alcohols), secondary oxidation products, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), sugar compounds, hopanes and biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) tracers. The concentrations of total quantified organic species ranged from 138.2 to 6.8 × 103 ng m−3, among which levoglucosan was the most abundant compound. Biomass burning tracers (anhydrosugars, lignin and resin acids) were the most abundant compounds, followed by fatty acids, secondary oxidation products, PAHs, sugar compounds and fatty alcohols. Biogenic SOA tracers and hopanes were less abundant. The homohopane index [defined as 31abS/(31abS + 31abR)] was 0.5, indicating a potential contribution of traffic emission. PAHs showed a dominance of benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF), and the diagnostic ratios implicated a substantial contribution of petroleum combustion as well as coal combustion. 2-methylglyceric acid to 2-methyltetrols ratio (2.2) indicated that NOx influence isoprene oxidation products formation. Furthermore, the average ratio of cis-pinonic acid plus pinic acid to 3-hydroxyglutaric acid (31.4) revealed the much fresher α/β-pinene oxidation products to some extent. A good correlation was found between β-caryophyllinic acid and levoglucosan (r = 0.61), suggesting that β-caryophyllene can mainly be generated by biomass burning. The biogenic secondary organic carbon (SOC) was underestimated by the tracer-based method, which only occupied 0.4% of the organic carbon (OC). In contrast, PMF model indicated that emissions from fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning were most important, accounting for 42.4% and 33.6%, respectively, followed by biogenic SOA emission (17.0%) and fungal spore derived source (7.0%), suggesting biogenic aerosol is a nonnegative contributor. Capsule Fossil fuel combustion (42.4%) as well as biomass burning (33.6%) were most important contributors of organic aerosols in a typical city in Northeast China.