[Aging and mixing state of particulate matter during aerosol pollution episode in autumn Shanghai using a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS)].

A single particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) was applied to characterize the size distribution (200 nm-2.0 microm) and chemical compositions of ambient particles during a polluted event from 11th to 18th, November 2011. OCEC, METAL, EC, SECONDARY and K-Na types of particulates were the dominant groups observed in hazy day period, which were 27.4%, 3.4%, 7.3% , 45.6% and 5.4% of the overall measured particles, respectively. The observed five types of particles contained the secondary composition such as 18NH4(+), 80SO3(-), 96SO4(-), 97HSO4(-), 46NO2(-), 62NO3(-) and 125H (NO3) -, showing that they probably went through different aging processes, and the increasing of the SECONDARY particles during the event clearly indicated a secondary aerosol pollution. Heterogeneous reactions of SO2 and particles could be the reason of strong 97HSO4(-) signals in the mass spectrums of OCEC type particles while the existence of organic compounds might have an important influence on the aerosol formation with the gas-phase sulfuric acid. Fresh EC particles in the environment tended to be aging with above-mentioned secondary ions by the analysis of particle size distribution and eventually lead to a particle type conversion from EC to SECONDARY. Organic amine in marine environment was brought to the land by the warm, moist marine air mass that dramatically removed atmospheric SECONDARY and OCEC particles from the air with a heavy rain and leading to the observation of amine particles in the clean day period.