Chemical Differences Between PM 1 and PM 2.5 in Highly Polluted Environment and Implications in Air Pollution Studies

• Published in: Geophysical research letters 2020-03, Vol.47 (5)
• Main Authors: Sun, Yele, He, Yao, Kuang, Ye, Xu, Wanyun, Song, Shaojie, Ma, Nan, Tao, Jiangchuan, Cheng, Peng, Wu, Cheng, Su, Hang, Cheng, Yafang, Xie, Conghui, Chen, Chun, Lei, Lu, Qiu, Yanmei, Fu, Pingqing, Croteau, Philip, Worsnop, Douglas R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1029/2019GL086288

Submicron aerosol (PM 1 ) species measured by aerosol mass spectrometers have been widely used to validate chemical transport models; however, the uncertainties due to chemical differences between PM 1 and PM 2.5 are poorly constrained. Here we characterized such differences in a highly polluted environment in north China in winter. Our results showed that the changes in PM 1 /PM 2.5 ratios as a function of relative humidity (RH) were largely different for primary and secondary species. Secondary organic and inorganic aerosol (SOA and SIA) presented clear decreases in PM 1 /PM 2.5 ratios at RH > 60% during periods with high SIA contributions (>50%), likely driven by the changes in aerosol hygroscopicity and phase states, while the traffic and coal combustion OA had limited dependence on RH. Thermodynamic modeling showed negligible impacts of PM differences on predictions of particle acidity, yet these impacts can cause a difference in aerosol water content by up to 50–70%. Current air pollution studies rely largely upon aerosol mass spectrometers that provide real‐time measurements of submicron aerosol (PM 1 ) species, and in many studies, PM 1 aerosol species are used to validate those of PM 2.5 in chemical transport models and estimate particle acidity and aerosol water content which are key parameters in studying heterogeneous reactions. However, the uncertainties in air pollution studies due to the chemical differences of PM 1 and PM 2.5 are poorly constrained, particularly in highly polluted environment, for example, China and India. We found that the changes in PM 1 /PM 2.5 ratios as a function of relative humidity were largely different for primary and secondary aerosol species in highly polluted environment, which was likely driven by the changes in aerosol hygroscopicity and phase states. The chemical differences of PM 1 /PM 2.5 ratios were also found to have negligible impacts on predictions of particle acidity, yet these impacts can cause a difference in aerosol water content by up to 50–70%. Considering the rapid increases in the deployments of aerosol mass spectrometers worldwide, the results in this study are of great importance for a better understanding of the uncertainties in both modelling and observations. We observed large chemical differences between PM 1 and PM 2.5 under high relative humidity periods in highly polluted environment The RH dependence of PM 1 /PM 2.5 ratios of primary and secondary species was largely different due to d