Coarse and fine particulates, Hg(p)-bound particulate concentrations and compositions study at Sha-Lu, central Taiwan

Ambient air and coarse, fine and particulate-bound mercury (Hg(p)) pollutants were collected and analyzed from March 17 to May 22 and September 3, 2009 to March 5, 2010 at a highway traffic site located in Sha-Lu, central Taiwan. This study has the following objectives: (1) to measure the coarse and fine particulates concentrations and the particulate-bound mercury Hg(p) which was attached to these particulate; (2) to determine the average Hg(p) compositions in coarse and fine particulates and (3) to compare the Hg(p) concentrations and compositions particulate in this study to the those obtained in other studies. The results obtained in this study indicated that the average ambient air PM2.5, PM2.5–10 and PM10 were 18.79 ± 6.71, 11.22 ± 4.93 and 30.01 ± 10.27 μg/m3, respectively. The ranges of concentrations for Hg(p) in PM2.5 were from 0.0016 to 0.0557 ng/m3, from 0.0006 to 0.0364 ng/m3 in PM2.5–10 and from 0.0022 to 0.0862 ng/m3 in PM10. In addition, the highest particle-bound mercury compositions in PM2.5 were 16.85 ng/g and the lowest particle-bound mercury concentrations were 0.55 ng/g. The highest particle-bound mercury compositions in PM2.5–10 were 13.88 ng/g and the lowest particle-bound mercury in PM2.5–10 were 0.22 ng/g.