The contribution of road traffic to particulate matter and metals in air pollution in the vicinity of an urban road

- We measured the concentrations of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 in urban area.
- Measured concentrations of particulate matter (PM) were evaluated.
- Chemical analyses of PM were realized and the amounts of metals were determined.
- Concentrations of metals were used for identification the sources of PM.
- Potential sources of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 were identified.

A detailed investigation was conducted to study the sources of particulate matter in the vicinity of an urban road in Žilina. To determine the amount of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) present in the ambient air, a reference gravimetric method was used. The main objective of this contribution was to identify the sources of these particles by means of statistical methods, specifically principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), and absolute principal component scores (APCS), as well as using the presence of 17 metals in the particulate matter (Na, Mg, Al, Ca, V, Cr, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Mo, Sb, Cd, Ba, Pb). To identify the metals in the particulate matter samples and to determine their abundances, spectroscopic methods were used, specifically inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Each of these metals may come from a specific source, such as the burning of fossil fuels in fossil fuel power plants; local heating of households; the burning of liquefied fossil fuels in the combustion engines of vehicles; the burning of coal and wood; non-combustion related emissions resulting from vehicular traffic; resuspension of traffic-related dust; and industry. Diesel vehicles and non-combustion emissions from road traffic have been identified as two key sources of the particulate matter. The results reveal that non-combustion emissions, which are associated with the elements Na, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn, Mo, Sb, Cd, and Pb, are the major contributors, followed by combustion emissions from diesel vehicles, which are associated with the elements Mg, Ca, and Ba.

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