Inorganic, organic and macromolecular components of fine aerosol in different areas of Europe in relation to their water solubility

A chemical mass balance of fine aerosol (<1.5 mu m AED) collected at three European sites was performed with reference to the water solubility of the different aerosol classes of components. The sampling sites are characteris ed by different pollution conditions and aerosol loading in the air. Aspvre ten is a background site in central Sweden, K-puszta is a rural site in the Great Hungarian Plain and San Pietro Capofiume is located in the polluted Po Valley, northern Italy. The average fine aerosol mass concentration was 5.9 mu g m(-3) at the background site Aspvreten, 24 mu g m(-3) at the rural K-puszta and 38 mu g m(-3) at the polluted site San Pietro Capofiume. Howe ver, a similarly high soluble fraction of the aerosol (65-75 %) was measure d at the three sites, while the percentage of water soluble organic species with respect to the total soluble mass was much higher at the background s ite (ca. 50%) than at the other two sites (ca. 25%). A very high fraction ( over 70%) of organic compounds in the aerosol consisted of polar species. T he presence of water soluble macromolecular compounds was revealed in the s amples from K-puszta and San Pietro Capofiume, At both sites these species accounted for between ca. 20-50% of the water soluble organic fraction, The origin of the compounds was tentatively attributed to biomass combustion. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.