Atmospheric Particulate Matter: Origin, Sources, and Composition

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 16 May 2025 | Viewed by 1323

Special Issue Editor

School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: aerosol chemistry and volatility; aerosol measurements; source apportionment of organic aerosols; evolution of secondary organic aerosol
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Particulate matter is emitted to the atmosphere primarily through anthropogenic and biogenic sources or formed secondarily from gas-phase precursors (SO2, NOx, VOCs, etc.) through atmospheric chemistry processes. It could significantly impact human health, the climate and ecosystems. The apportionment of the sources of particulate matter remains a substantial challenge in the research of air pollution, which can be affected by factors such as the accuracy of measurement, the evolution process, the mixing and interaction of different components from different sources, etc. In urban areas, particulate matter is a constant serious problem due to the high level of particle concentration from various anthropogenic sources (including traffic, cooking, industry, etc.), which can affect human habitats with high population densities. The identification and quantification of the concentration of various anthropogenic and biogenic sources of particulate matter in the atmosphere will greatly benefit the improvement of air quality and human environments, especially in urban areas.

This Special Issue focuses on the sources and concentrations of particulate matter in the atmosphere, and is supported by the analysis and source apportionment of particulate matter under different environments, the laboratory study of particulate matter emitted from different sources and the evolution process. Moreover, novel methods and techniques for the accurate measurement of the concentration of various chemical components of particles, the refinement of source apportionment methods and other related topics are also welcome.

Dr. Liming Cao
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • particulate matter
  • source apportionment
  • chemical composition anthropogenic and biogenic source
  • evolution

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 7731 KiB  
Article
Determining the PM10 Pollution Sources near the Copper Smelter in Bor, Serbia
by Renata Kovačević, Bojan Radović, Dragan Manojlović, Tamara Urošević, Tatjana Apostolovski-Trujić, Viša Tasić and Milena Jovašević-Stojanović
Atmosphere 2024, 15(12), 1498; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15121498 - 16 Dec 2024
Viewed by 825
Abstract
The EPA Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) 5.0 model was applied to determine the sources and characteristics of PM10 collected near the copper smelter in Bor, Serbia, from September 2009 to July 2010. For a better understanding of the industrial sources of PM [...] Read more.
The EPA Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) 5.0 model was applied to determine the sources and characteristics of PM10 collected near the copper smelter in Bor, Serbia, from September 2009 to July 2010. For a better understanding of the industrial sources of PM10 pollution, the dataset was divided into four observation periods: heating season (HS), non-heating season (NHS), copper smelter in work (SW), and copper smelter out of work (SOW). The daily limit for the PM10 fraction of 50 μg/m3 was exceeded on one-sixth of days in the NHS, about half the days in the HS, and about one-third of days during the SOW and SW period. The nine different sources of PM10 were identified: fuel combustion, industrial dust, dust from tailings, storage and preparation of raw materials, secondary nitrate, Cu smelter, traffic, cadmium, and plant for the production of precious metals. The contribution of factors related to the activities in the copper smelter complex to the total mass of PM10 was 83.1%. When the copper smelter was out of work the contribution of all the factors related to PM10 pollution from the copper smelter to the total mass of the PM10 was 2.3-fold lower, 35.8%, compared with the period when the copper smelter was in work. This study is the first attempt to use PMF receptor modeling to determine the air pollution sources and their contribution to ambient air pollution in the city of Bor, Serbia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Particulate Matter: Origin, Sources, and Composition)
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