Morphology Analysis of Fine Particles in Background Station of Malaysia

Abstract

A study have been conducted at Jerantut, Pahang. PM 2.5 concentrations were collected continously for 14 days and were analyzed to investigate time series and diurnal variations. Range of PM 2.5 concentration was between 6.0µg/m 3 and 98µg/m 3 with average 30.43 ± 15.07µg/m 3. The mean temperature was 28.61°C, while relative humidity and wind speed were 76.49% and 0.56m/s. From hourly variations, the percentage of PM 2.5 concentration that exceed USEPA and WHO standards are 30.36% and 56.85%, respectively. Due to rush hour, diurnal pattern shows that PM 2.5 concentration had the first peak between 6.00 to 9.00 h, the second peak between 12.00 to 13.00 h and the third peak between 19.00 to 21.00 h. PM 2.5 shows a weak negative linear relationship with wind speed and temperature but shows a weak positive linear relationship with relative humidity. Morphology characteristic provides information about particle sources, atmospheric history, formation, reactivity, transport and removal of atmospheric chemical species. From FESEM analysis, the particles were categorized into two groups that are biological particles and anthropogenic particles. The biological particles such as fungal spore, brochosome and fungal hyphae were recognised from their morphology characteristics while anthropogenic particles such as soot were recognised from their morphology characteristics and weight percentage of elemental components.