Mixing states and secondary formation processes of organic nitrogen-containing single particles in Guangzhou,China

Organic nitrogen(ON)compounds play a significant role in the light absorption of brown carbon and the formation of organic aerosols,however,the mixing state,secondary formation processes,and influencing factors of ON compounds are still unclear.This paper reports on the mixing state of ON-containing particles based on measurements obtained using a highperformance single particle aerosol mass spectrometer in January 2020 in Guangzhou.The ON-containing particles accounted for 21% of the total detected single particles,and the particle count and number fraction of the ON-containing particles were two times higher at night than during the day.The prominent increase in the content of ON-containing particles with the enhancement of NO_xmainly occurred at night,and accompanied by high relative humidity and nitrate,which were associated with heterogeneous reactions between organics and gaseous NO_(x)and/or NO_(3)radical.The synchronous decreases in ON-containing particles and the mass absorption coefficient of water-soluble extracts at 365 nm in the afternoon may be associated with photo-bleaching of the ON species in the particles.In addition,the positive matrix factorization analysis found five factors dominated the formation processes of ON particles,and the nitrate factor(33%)mainly contributed to the production of ON particles at night.The results of this study provide unique insights into the mixing states and secondary formation processes of the ON-containing particles.

Enhanced mixing state of black carbon with nitrate in single particles during haze periods in Zhengzhou, China

Black carbon(BC)plays an important role in air quality and climate change,which is closely associated with its mixing state and chemical compositions.In this work the mixing state of BC-containing single particles was investigated to explore the evolution process of ambient BC particles using a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer(SPAMS)in March 2018 in Zhengzhou,China.The BC-containing particles accounted for 61.4%of total detected ambient single particles and were classified into five types including BC-nitrate(BC-N,52.3%)as the most abundant species,followed by BC-nitrate-sulfate(BC-NS,22.4%),BCOC(16.8%),BC-fresh(BC-F,4.5%)and BC-sulfate particles(BC-S,4.0%).With enhancement of the ambient nitrate concentration,the relative peak area(RPA)of nitrate in BC-N and BC–NS particles both increased,yet only the number fraction(N_(f))of BC–N particles increased while the N_(f) of BC-NS particles decreased,suggesting that the enhanced mixing state of BC with nitrate was mainly due to the increase in the ambient nitrate mass concentration.In addition,the Nfof BC-N decreased from 65.3%to 28.4%as the absorbing Angstrom exponents(AAE)of e BC increased from 0.75 to 1.45,which indicated the reduction of light absorption ability of aged BC particles with the enhanced formation of BC-N particles.The results of this work indicated a change in the mixing state of BC particles due to the dominance of nitrate in PM_(2.5),which also influenced the optical properties of aged BC particles.