Experimental protocol for surface analysis of airborne particles - Case ofauto emissions

Physical and chemical surface properties of airborne particle must be inves tigated because of the role played by the outershell properties when they a re involved in heterogeneous phase reactions with the other atmospheric com ponents. However, to perform such analysis, we have to deal with a complex analytical problem: characterisation of submicrometric particle surfaces ma de up mostly of organic compounds. We suggest in this paper an analytical procedure to achieve particulate mat ter surface analysis in order to get, first, datas on particle surface topo graphy to evaluate qualitatively their adsorption capacity, and then, to es timate what chemical functions are found on their surface. The analytical m ethodology has been developped on car exhaust particles.