CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PM10 AND PM2.5 OF A RURAL SITE OF SOUTH ITALY

The concentration of atmospheric particulate matter is key concerns in several urban and suburban areas in Europe. In the last few years, knowledge of the chemical composition of airborne particulate matter (PM) and the necessity of differentiating PM components with respect to both health and environmental effects have been recognised as increasingly important within the scientific community. In this work we present the results of a summer-autumn sampling campaign during 2015 in a rural site of south Italy. We collect PM10 and PM2.5 samples every 24 hours and in order to better understand the processes affecting the chemistry of the atmosphere we also collect PM2.5 every 6 hours. Soluble ionic species (major ions: SO42-, NO3-, NH4+, Cl-, C2O42-, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+), 12 elements (Ni, Cu, V, Mn, As, Pb, Cr, Sb, Fe, Al, Zn and Ti) and OC and EC contents are analyzed. The analysis of the content of heavy metals and water-soluble salts was performed on Teflon filters, while the determination of the OC and EC was performed on the quartz membrane after a thermic treatment. Multivariate Statistical treatments of data have been tested on PM10 and PM2.5 separately and then together in order to evaluate the informations reached with the merging of the data. After all the PM2.5 samples collected at higher time frequency have been evaluated