Comparison of Oxidative Abilities of PM2.5 Collected at Traffic and Residential Sites in Japan. Contribution of Transition Metals and Primary and Secondary Aerosols

ABSTRACT

Filter environmental samples of PM_2.5 were collected at a traffic intersection in Kawasaki, Japan, and at a residential site (Tsukuba, Japan) in summer and winter, and the chemical compositions of the samples and their oxidative abilities in the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay were determined. Laboratory-generated aerosols (diesel exhaust particles [DEPs], gasoline direct injection spark ignition particles, and secondary organic aerosols [SOAs] generated from various precursors) were also investigated. To assess the effects of transition metals in the filter samples, we also conducted DTT assays on solutions of metal compounds similarly to the filter samples. In addition, the samples were pretreated with chelating reagents to mask the effects of transition metals. The DTT consumption average values for the filter samples collected at the traffic site were 53 and 50 pmol min^–1 µg^–1 in summer and winter, respectively, and these values were 1.3 and 1.1 times the corresponding values at the residential site and were also higher than the values for the laboratory-generated aerosols. Transition metals (Cu, Fe, Ni, and Mn) in the environmental samples were considered to be major contributors to DTT consumption (more than 80%). After removal of the effect of these transition metals with the chelating reagents, the oxidative abilities of the environmental samples were correlated with the amounts of organic carbon, water-soluble organic carbon, and organic acids and were weakly correlated with the amounts of elemental carbon and inorganic ions. We also found that the oxidative abilities based on the amount of organic carbon after removal of the effects of transition metals for DEPs, photochemically generated SOAs, and environmental samples except in the case of the traffic site in summer were compatible.