Co-occurrence of PM2.5-bound mercury and carbon in rural areas affected by coal combustion

Özet

Diurnal (24 h) samples of PM2.5 were collected at two sites, Godow and Z łoty Potok (southern Poland),during the whole 2013 year. The measuring stations in Godow and Z łoty Potok belong to the air qualitymonitoring network and, being located at relatively weakly polluted sites, they serve as regional background measuring stations. Mercury (Hg), organic carbon (OC), and elemental carbon (EC) were determined in PM2.5 and their ambient concentrations were analyzed for their mutual relationships.The contributions of Hg, OC, and EC to the PM2.5 mass at one site were similar to those at the other site.The seasonal changes (heating/non-heating periods) of each of them were also similar at the two sites.The essential difference in the behaviors of these PM2.5-bound substances between the two sitesappeared in their 24 h ambient concentrations, higher in Godow because of higher in God ow PM 2.5concentrations.The concentrations of PM2.5-bound Hg and various forms of PM2.5-bound C were highly correlated, theSpearman rank correlation coefficients were greater than 0.8 for Godow and greater than 0.7 for Z łotyPotok. A linear dependence of ambient concentrations of PM2.5-bound Hg on PM2.5-bound OC and EC wasfound using multilinear regression analysis.