Chemical compositions and source apportionment of atmospheric PM10 in suburban area of Changsha, China

Source apportionment of particulate matters with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10) was conducted in the suburban area of Changsha, China. PM10 samples for 24 h collected with TEOM 1400a and ACCU system in July and October 2008 were chemically analyzed by the wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF). Source appointment was implemented by the principal component analysis/absolute principal component analysis (PCA/APCA) to identify the possible sources and to quantify the contributions of the sources to PM10. Results show that as the PM10 concentration is increased from (85.6±43.7) μg/m3 in July 2008 to (107.6±35.7) μg/m3 in October 2008, the concentrations of the anthropogenic elements (P, S, Cl, K, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb) are basically increased but concentrations of the natural elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, and Fe) are essentially decreased. Six main sources of PM10 are identified in the suburban of Changsha, China: soil dust, secondary aerosols, domestic oil combustion, waste incineration, traffic emission, and industrial emission contribute 57.7%, 24.0%, 9.8%, 5.0%, 2.0%, and 1.5%, respectively. Soil dust and secondary aerosols are the two major sources of particulate air pollution in suburban area of Changsha, China, so effective measures should be taken to control these two particulate pollutants.