Abstract Black carbon, the ubiquitous stable product of incomplete combustion, is a potential sink for atmospheric CO2 and, therefore, a contributor to the Earth’s radiative heat balance. Accurate information about the distribution of black carbon in soils is important for climate change projections, given that the black carbon content of soils varies widely across the globe. In response to this issue, an accurate, rapid and cost-effective method to assess BC is needed. The use of benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCA) as molecular markers of black carbon has the advantage of specifically tracking the polyaromatic backbone of the black carbon continuum. However, this method has three major disadvantages: (a) it is expensive; (b) it is very time-consuming; and (c) some of the literature states that care has to be taken when applying the BPCA method to organic-rich matrices. In response to these disadvantages, the aims of the present study were: (a) to check the validity of a new shorter and economical method for black carbon quantification based on BPCA as molecular markers; and (b) to study the correlation between BPCA formation during the analysis and the soil sample’s OC content. The proposed method for black carbon quantification is based on the BPCA method developed by Glaser et al. (1998), but uses a simple direct elemental analysis (EA) of C content in the residue obtained after a strong digestion instead of the molecular determination by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID). This simplification of the method represents a great cost reduction (in time and expense) providing a rapid and accurate method for large soil sample sets.

中文翻译：

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使用改性苯多羧酸 (BPCA) 方法快速经济地定量土壤中的黑碳

摘要 黑碳是普遍存在的不完全燃烧的稳定产物，是大气 CO2 的潜在汇，因此是地球辐射热平衡的贡献者。鉴于土壤中的黑碳含量在全球范围内差异很大，因此有关土壤中黑碳分布的准确信息对于气候变化预测非常重要。为了解决这个问题，需要一种准确、快速且具有成本效益的方法来评估 BC。使用苯多羧酸 (BPCA) 作为黑碳的分子标记物的优点是可以专门追踪黑碳连续体的多芳烃主链。但是，这种方法有三个主要缺点：(a) 价格昂贵；(b) 非常耗时；(c) 一些文献指出，将 BPCA 方法应用于富含有机物的基质时必须小心。针对这些缺点，本研究的目的是： (a) 检查基于 BPCA 作为分子标记的新的更短、更经济的黑碳量化方法的有效性；(b) 研究分析过程中 BPCA 的形成与土壤样品 OC 含量之间的相关性。所提出的黑碳量化方法基于 Glaser 等人开发的 BPCA 方法。(1998)，但使用简单的直接元素分析 (EA) 对经过强消化后获得的残留物中的 C 含量进行分析，而不是通过带有火焰离子化检测器的气相色谱 (GC-FID) 进行分子测定。