The characteristics of carbonaceous particles down to the nanoparticle range in Rangsit city in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

Abstract

Atmospheric size-classified particles in sizes ranging from small to nanoparticles (PM0.1) are reported for Rangsit City in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) of Thailand, for October 2019 (wet season) and January–February 2020 (dry season). The sampling involved the use of a PM0.1 cascade air sampler to determine the mass concentration. The PMs consisted of six stages including TSP–PM10, PM2.5-10, PM1.0-2.5, PM0.5-1.0, PM0.5-1.0 and PM0.1. Elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC) were evaluated by a carbon analyzer following the IMPROVE_TOR protocol. The average PM0.1 mass concentrations were found to be 13.47 ± 0.79 (wet season) and 18.88 ± 3.99 (dry season) μg/m3, respectively. The average OC/EC ratio for the rainy season was lower than that in the dry season. The char-EC/soot-EC ratios were consistently below 1 for the PM0.1 fraction in both seasons indicating that vehicular traffic appeared to be the main emission source. However, the influence of open biomass burning on fine and coarse PM particles on local air pollution was found to be an important issue during the wet season. In addition, long-range transport from other countries may also contribute to the carbon content in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) atmosphere during the dry season. The higher secondary organic carbon to organic carbon (SOC/OC) ratio in the dry season is indicative of the contribution of secondary sources to the formation of PM, especially finer particles. A strong correlation between OC and EC in nanoparticles was found, indicating that they are derived from sources of constant emission, likely the diesel engines. Conversely, the OC and EC correlation for other size-specific PMs decreased during the dry season, indicating that these emission sources were more varied.