View article

Concentrations and distributions of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in atmospheric particles were measured at 8 sites in four cities (Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai) of Pearl River Delta Region (PRDR), China during two winter months (January and February, 2002). PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ samples were collected on pre-fired quartz filters with mini-volume samplers and analyzed using thermal optical reflectance (TOR) method. Average PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ level were 72.6 and 111.5μgm⁻³, respectively, with PM_2.5 constituting 70.4% of the PM₁₀ mass. The average OC and EC concentrations in PM_2.5 were 14.7 and 6.1μgm⁻³, respectively, while those in PM₁₀ were 19.7 and 7.8μgm⁻³, respectively. The carbonaceous aerosol accounted for 40.2% of the PM_2.5 and 35.9% of the PM₁₀. The average OC/EC ratio was 2.4 for PM_2.5 and 2.5 for PM₁₀, which are comparable with most urban …