Seoul, Korea is an urbanized megacity with commercial, industrial, and residential areas and is affected by transporting air pollutants from China and Japan, the atmospheric chemical composition is very complicated. Especially in urban or industrial a...
Seoul, Korea is an urbanized megacity with commercial, industrial, and residential areas and is affected by transporting air pollutants from China and Japan, the atmospheric chemical composition is very complicated. Especially in urban or industrial areas, organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) have a high composition ratio. Therefore, identifying the chemical properties and source contribution of organic compounds and estimating their health effects must be performed to establish appropriate reduction policies. This study is the first to estimate the source contribution of organic pollutants and evaluate their oxidative potential in Seoul.
A total of 91 PM1 samples were collected over seven months (September 2021 to March 2022) in Seoul, Korea. These samples were analyzed for PM1 mass concentration, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and 56 organic compounds. As a results of the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor model for identifying source contribution, five source categories were identified: Mobile (24%), SOA + Biomass burning (39%), Anthropogenic SOA (6.2%), Biogenic SOA (15%), and Combustion related (17%). In addition, the cluster analysis, the Conditional Bivariate Probability Function (CBPF) model, and the Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) model were performed to estimate the regional and long-range transporting impacts of each source.
As a result of estimating the OP through dithiothreitol (DTT) assay, SOA + Biomass burning source influenced from long distance regions such as Mongolia, North China, and North Korea was major contributor to OP. Also, PAHs, sugars, glyserides, methoxyphenols, and resin acids released dominantly from biomass burning, coal and wood combustion were high correlated with OP. Therefore, SOA + Biomass burning source, which contributes the most to OC in Seoul and has a high correlation with OP, must be managed.