Source identification and characterization of organic nitrogen in atmospheric aerosols at a suburban site in China

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2022-04, Vol.818, p.151800-151800, Article 151800
• Main Authors: Qi, Lu, Bozzetti, Carlo, Corbin, Joel C., Daellenbach, Kaspar R., El Haddad, Imad, Zhang, Qi, Wang, Junfeng, Baltensperger, Urs, Prévôt, André S.H., Chen, Mindong, Ge, Xinlei, Slowik, Jay G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols - analysis; Air Pollutants - analysis; China; Ecosystem; Environmental Monitoring; Humans; Nitrogen - analysis; Organic nitrogen; Particulate Matter - analysis; PMF_ON; Source apportionment
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151800

Despite the fact that atmospheric particulate organic nitrogen (ON) can significantly affect human health, ecosystems and the earth's climate system, qualitative and quantitative chemical characterization of ON remains limited due to its chemical complexity. In this study, the Aerodyne soot particle - high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (SP-AMS) was deployed for ambient measurements in Nanjing, China. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to the ON data to quantify the sources of ON in submicron aerosols. The averaged ON concentration was 1.24 μg m−3, while the averaged total nitrogen (TN) in the aerosol was 20.26 μg m−3. From the PMF ON analysis, a 5-factor solution was selected as the most representative and interpretable solution for the investigated dataset, including oxygenated OA (OOAON), amine-related OAON (AMOAON), hydrocarbon-like OA (HOAON), industry OA (IOAON), and local primary OA (POAON) factors. The quantified ON ions were separated into families, including CxHN, CxHyNO, C3H