Investigation of the mass loss of water soluble ionic compounds caused by EDXRF analysis of PM 10 loaded filters

The PM mass loss due to EDXRF analysis of PM 10 loaded filters was investigated in this study. The mass loss was gravimetrically evaluated on collocated filters analyzed both by EDXRF under vacuum condition and by Ion Chromatography. Then, this comparison was repeated with a gaseous mixture of air and Helium (He) instead of evacuating the measurements chamber of the EDXRF spectrometer. It was shown that EDXRF analysis under vacuum medium leads to mass loss of water soluble ions and other volatile constituents of PM 10 . The total PM mass loss was found not to be limited to water soluble ionic species, indicating that other volatile components of PM were likely to be lost. The use of a He and air mixture medium considerably reduced the PM mass losses. As the conclusion of the first step of this study, the mass loss of PM and ions mainly resulted from vacuum medium and to a lower extent to the level of x-Ray energy. In the second part of the study, the influence of EDXRF analysis using vacuum medium on the mass losses of ions were individually investigated. It was revealed that different amounts of NO 3 , NH 4 , Cl, Na, Mg and Ca were lost whereas SO 4 and K remained unchanged. At the last step of the study, the relationship between vacuum and application time was studied for quartz and Teflon filters. The longer the application time, the higher the PM mass loss was observed. It was also revealed that the behavior of mass loss of PM varies depending of filter materials. The mass loss of PM on quartz filter was shown by experiments to be 2 times higher than on Teflon filters.

YATKIN Sinan;  GERBOLES Michel; 

2013-04-12

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC76318

1352-2310,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231013001982,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC76318,   

10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.03.022,