Abstract

A method for the quantification of airborne organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) within aerosolized diesel particulate matter (DPM) is described in this article. DPM is a known carcinogen encountered in many industrial workplaces (notably mining) and in the ambient atmosphere. The method described here collects DPM particles onto a quartz fiber filter, after which reflection-mode infrared spectra are measured on a mid-infrared Fourier transform (FT-IR) spectrometer. Several infrared absorption bands are investigated for their efficacy in quantifying OC and EC. The thermo-optical (T-O) method is used to calibrate a linear regression model to predict OC and EC from the infrared spectra. The calibrated model, generated from laboratory DPM samples, is then utilized to quantify OC and EC in mine samples obtained from two metal mine locations under a variety of operating conditions. The feasibility of further improving these results by partial least squares (PLS) regression was investigated. A single calibration that is broadly applicable would be considered an improvement over currently available portable instruments, which require aerosol-specific calibration.

摘要

本文介绍了一种量化气溶胶柴油颗粒物 (DPM) 中空气中有机碳 (OC) 和元素碳 (EC) 的方法。DPM 是一种已知的致癌物质，在许多工业工作场所（尤其是采矿业）和环境大气中都会遇到。此处描述的方法将 DPM 颗粒收集到石英纤维过滤器上，然后在中红外傅立叶变换 (FT-IR) 光谱仪上测量反射模式红外光谱。研究了几个红外吸收带在量化 OC 和 EC 方面的功效。热光 (TO) 方法用于校准线性回归模型，以从红外光谱预测 OC 和 EC。从实验室 DPM 样本生成的校准模型，然后用于量化在各种操作条件下从两个金属矿山位置获得的矿山样品中的 OC 和 EC。研究了通过偏最小二乘 (PLS) 回归进一步改进这些结果的可行性。广泛适用的单一校准将被认为是对当前可用的便携式仪器的改进，后者需要特定于气溶胶的校准。