Kumar, Sudhanshu and Aggarwal, Shankar G. and Gupta, Prabhat K. and Kawamura, Kimitaka (2015) Investigation of the tracers for plastic-enriched waste burning aerosols. Atmospheric Environment, 108. pp. 49-58. ISSN 1352-2310

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Abstract

To better identify the tracers for open-waste burning (OWB) aerosols, we have conducted aerosol sampling at 2 landfill sites, i.e., Okhla and Bhalswa in New Delhi. The metals such as, As, Cd, Sb and Sn, which have been observed almost negligible in remote aerosols, are found abundantly in these OWB aerosol samples (n = 26), i.e., 60 +/- 65, 41 +/- 53, 537 +/- 847 and 1325 +/- 1218 ng m(-3), respectively. Samples (n = 20) collected at urban locations in New Delhi, i.e., at Employees' State Insurance (ESI) hospital and National Physical Laboratory (NPL) also show high abundances of these metals in the particles. Filter samples are also analyzed for water-soluble dicarboxylic acids (C-2-C-12) and related compounds (oxo-carboxylic acids and alpha-dicarbonyls). Terephthalic acid (tPh) was found to account for more than 77% of total diacids determined in OWB aerosols. However, such a high abundance of tPh is not observed in aerosols collected at urban sites. Instead, phthalic acid (Ph) was found as the third/fourth most abundant diacid (similar to 3%) following C-2 (>70%) and C-4 (>12%) in these waste burning influenced urban aerosols. A possible secondary formation pathway of Ph by photo-degradation of phthalate ester (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate) in plastic-waste burning aerosol is suggested. Ionic composition of OWB aerosols showed that Cl- is the most abundant ion (40 +/- 8% of total ions determined). The correlation studies of the potential metals with the organic tracers of garbage burning, i.e., phthalic, isophthalic and terephthalic acids show that especially Sn can be used as marker for tracing the plastic-enriched waste burning aerosols.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Plastic waste burning aerosol Chemical composition Tracer Metals Diacids Phthalic acid formation pathway
Subjects:	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Dr. Rajpal Walke
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2016 06:27
Last Modified:	28 Sep 2016 06:27
URI:	http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/1872

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