Speciated mercury in size-fractionated particles in Shanghai ambient air

Guangli Xiu, Ji Cai, Wenying Zhang, Danian Zhang, Andreas Büeler, Shuncheng Lee, Yan Shen, Lihang Xu, Xuejuan Huang, Ping Zhang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

85 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Size-fractionated particles were collected at two sites from July 2004 to April 2006 in Shanghai. The mercury in particles was extracted and divided operationally into four species: exchangeable particulate mercury (EXPM), HCl-soluble particulate mercury (HPM), elemental particulate mercury (EPM) and residual particulate mercury. The total particulate Hg concentration during the study period ranged from 0.07 ng m-3to 1.45 ng m-3with the average 0.56 ± 0.22 ng m-3at site 1, while 0.20 ng m-3-0.47 ng m-3with the average 0.33 ± 0.09 ng m-3at site 2, which is far higher than some foreign cities and comparable to some cities with heavy air pollution in China. The Hg mass content also displayed evident size distribution, with higher value in PM1.6-3.7, somewhat higher or lower than the source profile. EXAM was only found in the summer, HPM have higher percentage in summer and fall rather than in winter and spring. The different mercury species showed different correlation to temperature, relative humidity, wind speed. HPM positively depends on temperature at both sites which implies the importance of mercury transformation on particles. In foggy days TPM increased greatly, but HPM didn't vary greatly as anticipated. Instead, RPM gained a distinguished increase. It demonstrated that aqueous reaction and complex heterogenic reactions in droplet might happen in acidic environment. The correlation of mercury with other pollutants including SO2, NO2, CO and PM10varies with the different mercury forms. Hybrid single-particle lagrangian integrated trajectories (HYSPLIT) model was used to back trace air mass at different representative days and results indicated that transportation from Huabei Plain will increase mercury concentration in winter and fall to some extent. The possible existing compounds and their atmospheric behavior of HPM, EPM and RPM were calculated and the compared to analyze its implication on atmospheric mercury cycle.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3145-3154
Number of pages10
JournalAtmospheric Environment
Volume43
Issue number19
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2009

Keywords

  • HYSPLIT
  • Mercury
  • Particulate mercury
  • Shanghai
  • Speciation analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Environmental Science
  • Atmospheric Science

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