Using Sulfur as a Tracer of Outdoor Fine Particulate Matter

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• 作者：Jeremy A. Sarnat ; Christopher M. Long ; Petros Koutrakis ; Brent A. Coull ; Joel Schwartz ; and Helen H. Suh
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2002
• 出版时间：December 15, 2002
• 年：2002
• 卷：36
• 期：24
• 页码：5305 - 5314
• 全文大小：205K
• 年卷期：v.36,no.24(December 15, 2002)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Six homes in the metropolitan Boston area were sampledbetween 6 and 12 consecutive days for indoor andoutdoor particle volume and mass concentrations, particleelemental concentrations, and air exchange rates (AERs).Indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios of nighttime (i.e., particle nonindoorsource periods) sulfur, PM_2.5 and the specific particlesize intervals were used to provide estimates of the effectivepenetration efficiency. Mixed models and graphicaldisplays were used to assess the ability of the I/O ratiosfor sulfur to estimate corresponding I/O ratios for PM_2.5 andthe various particle sizes. Results from this analysisshowed that particulate sulfur compounds were primarilyof outdoor origin and behaved in a manner that wasrepresentative of total PM_2.5 in Boston, MA. These findingssupport the conclusion that sulfur can be used as asuitable tracer of outdoor PM_2.5 for the homes sampled inthis study. Sulfur was more representative of particlesof similar size (0.06-0.5 m), providing evidence that thesize composition of total PM_2.5 is an important characteristicaffecting the robustness of sulfur-based estimationmethods.