Development of a Black Carbon Standard for Thermal-OpticalAnalysis

Carbonaceous aerosols affect air quality and climate, but measurements of black (BC) and organic (OC) carbon concentrations are very uncertain. Many variants of the thermal-optical analysis (TOA) method exist, and more than a decade of research has not resolved the differences in their estimates of OC and BC (i.e., the OC/BC split). This is largely due to the lack of a BC standard. Without a BC standard, the accuracy of TOA measurements of OC and BC cannot be determined. The research goal is to develop a method of producing BC standards that can be used to determine the accuracy in TOA measurements of OC and BC. The uncertainty in TOA measurements is due to the presence of both OC and BC in particulate matter. Whereas measuring total carbon (TC) is straightforward, OC pyrolysis and charring and premature evolution of BC render determination of the OC/BC split uncertain (and method dependent) (1,2,3). If a particulate matter sample containing only OC or BC was analyzed by TOA, there would be little uncertainty in the measurement. Our approach to developing a standard for TOA, therefore, is to (1) generate particulate matter composed only of BC and fully characterize the physical and optical properties of the BC, (2) demonstrate that this BC can be collected in known amounts on filters and (3) reproduce filter samples with known amounts of BC mixed with other aerosol species, most notably OC. These filters, having known amounts of BC, could be used as standards for determining the accuracy of TOA measurements of BC and the OC/BC split. TOA methods could then be optimized for accuracy