Gas/particle partitioning of low-molecular-weight dicarboxylic acids at a suburban site in Saitama, Japan

Low-molecular-weight dicarboxylic acids (diacids) exhibit semivolatile behavior in the atmosphere, but their partitioning between the gaseous and particulate phases is still unclear. An annular denuder–filter pack system with a cyclone PM2.5 was employed to investigate the gaseous and particulate phase concentrations of diacids, with high collection efficiency of most target compounds. Saturated diacids, unsaturated diacids, ketocarboxylic acids, and dicarbonyls were determined in gaseous and particulate samples collected from a suburban site in Japan, during 2007 summer, 2008 late-winter and early-winter. The concentrations of gaseous and particulate diacids in early-winter were lower than those in summer, but higher than those in late-winter. Individual diacid in gaseous phase showed a relatively good correlation with ambient oxidants, but a low correlation with NO gas (a primary pollutant). Particulate fraction to the total amount (FP) of individual acid was larger in winter than in summer, and also was larger at night than in the daytime. In the same sample, individual diacid and ketocarboxylic acid had higher particulate phase occurrence (FP > 56% in summer), whereas unsaturated diacid had higher gaseous phase occurrence (FP < 18% in summer). In summer, gas/particle partitioning of diacids varied diurnally; FP values of oxalic and glyoxylic acids increased from their lowest values in the morning to their highest values at night, exhibiting the similar diurnal variation of relative humidity in the atmosphere. The higher humidity at night may lead to the formation of droplets in which water-soluble gaseous phases can dissolve, thus promoting gas-to-particle conversion. These results suggest that gas/particle partitioning of diacids depends not only on the concentrations in the gaseous phase by photochemical oxidation, but also on the characteristics of the atmosphere (e.g., temperature, sunlight, and relative humidity) and the aerosols (e.g., acidity, alkaline composition, and water content).