Knowledge Bank

The chemical characterization of particulate matter (PM) to which humans are exposed to provides information important to the understanding of our chemical environment and associated health risks. In this research, experimental methods have been developed for the collection and qualitative characterization of personal exposure to PM. Three ambient samples have been collected at various locations in Columbus, OH to demonstrate the analytical capabilities of the techniques used. The methods developed will be used in future PM compositional studies and can be extended to include quantitative functional group analysis. Field samples of PM were collected over a 24-h period on Teflon filters with the Sioutas cascade impactor operated at 9 L/min. PM samples were fractionated into the following size distributions: > 2.5 µm, 2.5 – 1.0 µm, 1.0 –0.50 µm, 0.50 – 0.25 µm, and < 2.5 µm. FTIR analysis of the samples provided important details on the functional group composition of the PM samples. A differential washing procedure was used to assess the polarity of particle constituents.