Day-of-week trends in carbonaceous aerosol composition in the urban atmosphere

The chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter was measured at two sites near Los Angeles, California, over 3 weeks in July 2001, as part of the Gasoline/Diesel PM Split Study. Samples were composited for organic speciation analysis by day of week at each site to investigate weekly trends in chemical composition of the carbonaceous fraction of particulate matter. Observed weekly trends in elemental carbon (EC), hopanes, steranes, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) indicate increased impacts of motor vehicle traffic on carbonaceous particulate matter concentrations on weekdays relative to weekends. Ambient average EC was approximately 4 times higher in the Friday samples than in Sunday samples at each site. Levoglucosan, a tracer species for biomass burning, and cholesterol, monopalmitin, and monostearin, tracers for food cooking operations, were all highest on Friday and lowest on Sunday. Late-week increases in aliphatic and aromatic diacids present in the particulate phase were also observed. Diacids in particulate matter have been seen to be indicators of secondary organic aerosol formation, and the day-of-week trend observed may be due to weekday increases in volatile precursor species present in the atmosphere.