Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 350, Chengdu 610209, China; School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; National Key Laboratory of Optical Field Manipulation Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 350, Chengdu 610209, China; School of Optoelectronics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 350, Chengdu 610209, China; National Key Laboratory of Optical Field Manipulation Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 350, Chengdu 610209, China; School of Optoelectronics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jul 20;883:163668. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163668. Epub 2023 Apr 24.
Characterization of atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM) in large cities has important implications for the study of their sources and formation mechanisms, as well as in developing effective measures to control air pollution. Herein, we report a holistic physical and chemical characterization of PM by combining surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron-induced X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). PM particles were collected in a suburban area of Chengdu, a large city in China with a population over 21 million. A special SERS chip composed of inverted hollow Au cone (IHAC) arrays was designed and fabricated to allow direct loading of PM particles. SERS and EDX were used to reveal the chemical composition, and particle morphologies were analyzed from SEM images. SERS data of atmospheric PM indicated qualitatively the presence of carbonaceous particulate matter, sulfate, nitrate, metal oxides and bioparticles. The EDX showed the presence of the elements C, N, O, Fe, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, and Ca in the collected PM. Morphology analysis showed that the particulates were mainly in the form of flocculent clusters, spherical, regular crystal shaped or irregularly shaped particles. Our chemical and physical analyses also revealed that the main sources of PM are automobile exhaust, secondary pollution caused by photochemical reactions in the air, dust, emission from nearby industrial exhaust, biological particles, other aggregated particles, and hygroscopic particles. SERS and SEM data collected during three different seasons showed that carbon-containing particles are the principal sources of PM. Our study demonstrates that the SERS based technique, when combined with standard physicochemical characterization methods, is a powerful analytical tool to determine the sources of ambient PM pollution. Results obtained in this work may be valuable to the prevention and control of PM pollution in air.
大气细颗粒物(PM)的特征化对于研究其来源和形成机制以及开发有效控制空气污染的措施具有重要意义。在这里,我们通过将表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)与扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和电子诱导 X 射线能谱(EDX)相结合,报道了 PM 的整体物理和化学特征化。PM 颗粒在成都市郊区收集,成都市是中国一个人口超过 2100 万的大城市。设计并制造了一种由倒置空心金锥(IHAC)阵列组成的特殊 SERS 芯片,以允许直接加载 PM 颗粒。使用 SERS 和 EDX 揭示化学成分,并且从 SEM 图像分析颗粒形态。大气 PM 的 SERS 数据定性地表明存在碳质颗粒物、硫酸盐、硝酸盐、金属氧化物和生物颗粒。EDX 显示了在收集的 PM 中存在 C、N、O、Fe、Na、Mg、Al、Si、S、K 和 Ca 等元素。形态分析表明,颗粒物主要以絮状簇、球形、规则晶体形状或不规则形状颗粒的形式存在。我们的化学和物理分析还表明,PM 的主要来源是汽车尾气、空气中光化学反应引起的二次污染、灰尘、附近工业废气排放、生物颗粒、其他聚集颗粒和吸湿颗粒。在三个不同季节收集的 SERS 和 SEM 数据表明,含碳颗粒是 PM 的主要来源。我们的研究表明,基于 SERS 的技术与标准物理化学特征化方法相结合,是确定环境 PM 污染来源的强大分析工具。这项工作获得的结果可能对预防和控制空气中的 PM 污染具有重要意义。