MULTIELEMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOLS IN FRAMESOF INTERLABORATORY EXPERIMENT

The influence of aerosols on the quality of the air, atmospheric proce sses and climate on the local, regional and global scales is defined b y the particle's dimension spectra and morphology, as well as chemical composition and element contents. As for elemental composition, it va ries between % and ppt. It creates some problems for analytical provis ion of the atmospheric aerosols investigations. To analyze aerosols sa mples on Whatman-41 filters, different analytical techniques have been applied: instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence (SRXF), atomic-absorption and optical at omic-emission spectrometry (OES). Interlaboratory comparisons of analy tical data have been used to estimate the true values for aerosol's el emental characterization. The results of statistical evaluation of dat a produced are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.