Abstract Thermal-Optical Analysis (TOA), a commonly implemented technique used to measure the amount of particulate carbon in the atmosphere or deposited on a filter substrate, distinguishes organic carbon (OC) from elemental carbon (EC) through the monitoring of laser light, heating, and measuring evolved carbon. Here, we present a method to characterize the TOA transmission method with an aqueous binary mixture containing EC and OC that can easily be deposited onto a filter at low volumes. Known amounts of EC and OC were deposited onto a quartz-fiber filter and analyzed with different temperature protocols. Results with the NIST-EPA-C temperature protocol agreed with the reference values to better than 2% for EC, OC, total carbon (TC), and EC/TC. Indicated TC for all temperature protocols was within 5% of the reference value while all protocols reproduced EC/TC ratios with an uncertainty less than 10%.

中文翻译：

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使用含水二元混合物评估热光学分析 (TOA)

摘要 热光分析 (TOA) 是一种常用的技术，用于测量大气中或沉积在过滤器基材上的颗粒碳量，通过对激光的监测来区分有机碳 (OC) 和元素碳 (EC)，加热，并测量演化出的碳。在这里，我们提出了一种用含有 EC 和 OC 的水性二元混合物来表征 TOA 传输方法的方法，该混合物可以很容易地以低体积沉积到过滤器上。已知量的 EC 和 OC 沉积在石英纤维过滤器上，并用不同的温度协议进行分析。NIST-EPA-C 温度协议的结果与 EC、OC、总碳 (TC) 和 EC/TC 的参考值一致，优于 2%。