Fine particle characterisation, source apportionment and long-range dust transport into the Sydney Basin: a long term study between 1998 and 2009

AbstractIon beam analysis techniques have been used to characterise fine particle (PM2.5) pollution in the Sydney Basin between 1 July 1998 and 31 December 2009. Nearly 1 200 filters were obtained and analysed for more than 21 different chemical species from hydrogen to lead. Positive matrix factorisation was then applied to this significant database to determine 7 different source fingerprints and their contributions to the total PM2.5 mass. Most of these sources originated in the Sydney Basin, however there were significant windblown soil sources that originated not just from desert regions in central Australia but also from large agricultural regions around 500 km south west of the Basin. This long range transport of fine dust was tracked using hourly back trajectories for every sampling day during the study period and showed that 33% of extreme dust events were probably originating from agricultural regions and not the central desert regions of Australia as first thought

Elemental composition of ambient fine particles in urban schools: Sources of children's exposure

Currently, there is a limited understanding of the sources of ambient fine particles that contribute to the exposure of children at urban schools. Since the size and chemical composition of airborne particle are key parameters for determining the source as well as toxicity, PM1 particles (mass concentration of particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 1 µm) were collected at 24 urban schools in Brisbane, Australia and their elemental composition determined. Based on the elemental composition four main sources were identified; secondary sulphates, biomass burning, vehicle and industrial emissions. The largest contributing source was industrial emissions and this was considered as the main source of trace elements in the PM1 that children were exposed to at school. PM1 concentrations at the schools were compared to the elemental composition of the PM2.5 particles (mass concentration of particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm) from a previous study conducted at a suburban and roadside site in Brisbane. This comparison revealed that the more toxic heavy metals (V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and Pb), mostly from vehicle and industrial emissions, were predominantly in the PM1 fraction. Thus, the results from this study points to PM1 as a potentially better particle size fraction for investigating the health effects of airborne particles

Chemistry of air particles collected near Australian industrial sites

Standards for particulate matter (PM) concentrations in air are primarily set to protect the public from adverse health effects by limiting their short and long term exposure. The impact of the PM depends both on its size and chemistry. While concentration levels of PM in Australia are defined by the National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM), the elemental chemical composition of particles, with the exception of lead (Pb), are not defined. This study revealed that the chemical composition of PM varies significantly between sites and the associated risk is considerably higher in the industrial areas than in the urban areas for the same particle concentration level.5 page(s

Source apportionment of PM2.5 at two receptor sites in Brisbane, Australia

In this study, samples of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) collected at two sites in the south-east Queensland region, a suburban (Rocklea) and a roadside site (South Brisbane), were analysed for H, Na, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Pb and black carbon (BC). Samples were collected during 2007-10 at the Rocklea site and 2009-10 at the South Brisbane site. The receptor model Positive Matrix Factorisation was used to analyse the samples. The sources identified included secondary sulfate, motor vehicles, soil, sea salt and biomass burning. Conditional probability function analysis was used to determine the most likely directions of the sources. Future air quality control strategies may focus on the particular sources identified in the analysis. © 2011, CSIRO Publishin

Recognising terrestrially-derived salt (NaCl) in SE Australian dust

The terrestrial and oceanic salt (NaCl) components in 39 dust samples from eight sites across south eastern Australia have been calculated from chemical data derived by ion beam analysis (IBA). For samples identified as having a positive terrestrial sal

Electrosynthesis of oligo(methoxyl pyrene) for turn-on fluorescence detection of volatile aromatic compounds

highly fluorescent conjugated oligomer, oligo(1-methoxyl pyrene) (OMOPr), was synthesized via electrochemical polymerization and its structure was studied by UV-vis spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy and ab initio calculation. The organic solutions of OMOPr emit strong blue lights and show solvatochromic effect, while these fluorescence emissions are quenched upon chain aggregation in its dry films. On the basis of these phenomena, a turn-on fluorescence sensor was fabricated and it can be used for detecting volatile aromatic compounds (VACs)