Abstract
Carbonaceous components in fine particles less than 2.5μm in diameter (PM2.5) in urban areas are of great concern because of health effects and environmental impact. In this study, water-soluble inorganic ions, organic carbon (OC) , elemental carbon (EC) , and levoglucosan emitted from biomass burning were measured in the fine particle (PM2.5) during the early winter at Saitama. The most abundant component of PM2.5 was organics (or OC) , followed by EC, NO3- and SO42-. Levoglucosan showed high concentrations in the sampling period which ranged from 139 to 2,900 ng/m3 (average 1,140 ng/m3) as 12h average and accounted for 1∼5.4% (average 4%) of OC and 0.2∼3.3% (average 1.9%) of total carbon (TC) . Science levoglucosan occupied a large portion of TC in particles though was a single organic compound, we estimated that the TC concentration observed in this study was associated with large contribution by the biomass burning.
