ATMOSPHERIC AIR POLLUTION STUDIES USING THE ISOTOPE MASS-SPECTROMETRY

ABSTRACT

In recent years, much environmental research interest has been focused on atmospheric carbonaceous particles due to their influence on climate and adverse health effects. Nitrogen oxides are also important pollutants entering the atmosphere with anthropogenic emissions from industrial enterprises, power plants, and transport. Basically, they are emitted when the fossil fuels burn and interaction of nitrogen oxides and water leads to form nitrates.
The application of the method of isotope-ratio mass spectrometry in the study of the isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen in the dispersed fractions of atmospheric aerosol is described in the paper. The preparation procedure of atmospheric particulate matter samples collected from the snow cover and the aerosols pumped from the atmospheric air directly to the filters using the method of high-volume sampling is presented. Laboratory studies of the isotope composition of carbon and nitrogen of atmospheric aerosols released at fossil fuels (coal, petroleum products) and biomass (wood, peat) combustion in the Large Aerosol Chamber of IAO SB RAS were carried out. The results of a comparative analysis of the atmospheric dispersed fraction aerosol isotope composition selected from urban and rural areas of Tomsk (Russia) are presented. It is shown that the isotopic variability of atmospheric aerosols makes the isotope ratio mass spectrometry method potentially useful for identifying sources of origin of atmospheric pollution.

Keywords: air pollution, atmospheric aerosol, dispersed fraction, isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, stable isotope composition