Sulfate aerosol study. Final report

Technical Report · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:5515371

Richards, L W; Johnson, K R; Shepard, L S

For many years, the interest in measuring ambient concentrations of sulfuric acid and ammonia has been largely derived from the need to determine the impact of specific pollution sources, or the desire to obtain information about the atmospheric processes which dominate the formation of ambient sulfates and nitrates. More recently, the need to determine the impact of the sulfuric acid emissions from catalyst equipped vehicles has increased the interest in being able to make these measurements. The work in this report was motivated by the latter problem, and is finding immediate application. Two analytical methods for determining the amount of sulfuric acid aerosol on Teflon filters have been improved, and the accuracy, precision and specificity of the methods determined. In the low temperature volatilization method, sulfuric acid is determined by selective volatilization into a flame photometric detector. The method gives an excellent separation between sulfuric acid and ammonium bisulfate or ammonium sulfate, and can be used to determine between 0.1 micrograms and roughly 1.5 micrograms sulfuric acid per filter. The 1.5 micrograms upper limit arises from apparatus limitations which can be removed. The benzaldehyde extraction method has been improved by the development of an ion chromatographic method for determining the sulfate extracted. The method gives excellent separation between sulfuric acid and ammonium sulfate, but about one-quarter of the ammonium bisulfate aerosol is extracted in reagent grade benzaldehyde. Amounts of sulfuric acid larger than about 5 micrograms per filter can be determined.

• Research Organization: Rockwell International Corp., Newbury Park, CA (USA). Air Monitoring Center
• OSTI ID: 5515371
• Report Number(s): PB-296518
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
424000* -- Engineering-- Pollution Control Equipment-- (1980-1989)
AEROSOLS
AIR FILTERS
AIR POLLUTION
AMMONIA
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHROMATOGRAPHY
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
EQUIPMENT
EXHAUST GASES
EXTRACTION
FILTERS
GAS ANALYSIS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
GASEOUS WASTES
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
MONITORING
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLS
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFURIC ACID
WASTES