AVS 47th International Symposium
    Incorporating Principles of Industrial Ecology Tuesday Sessions
       Session IE-TuM

Paper IE-TuM5
Single Particle Analysis of Particulate Pollutants in Yellowstone National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Tuesday, October 3, 2000, 9:40 am, Room 304

Session: Methods of Industrial Ecology Analysis / Global Concerns
Presenter: R.E. Peterson, Montana State University
Authors: R.E. Peterson, Montana State University
B.J. Tyler, Montana State University
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Particulate pollution is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds which includes a wide range of sizes and whose composition can vary widely depending on the time of year, geographical location, and both local and long range sources. Particles greater than 2 micrometers in diameter are generally formed by mechanical processes while smaller particles are formed by gas to particle conversion and accumulation/coagulation. Because particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers can become trapped deep in the lungs, it is of particular interest to identify toxic substances, such as heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, that may be present in particles of this size range. We are evaluating the potential for using TOF-SIMS to study the composition of single particles from atmospheric aerosol. For this study, samples of naturally occurring and anthropogenic atmospheric aerosol were collected at the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) during the winter snowmobile season of 1998/99. During the winter snowmobile season, incomplete combustion products from snowmobile exhaust may be a predominant source of airborne particulate matter in YNP. In Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HVNP), lava flows from the ongoing Kilauea volcano eruption are a particulate source which has been little investigated. Aerosol near fresh pahoehoe flows was sampled in January and May of 2000. Graseby/Anderson cascade impactors were used to collect size segregated fractions of the aerosol onto aluminum substrates in YNP and onto gold coated substrates in HVNP. Sections of the substrates have been imaged using a PHI TRIFT I instrument with a Ga primary ion source. Both positive and negative ion images have been studied. A large number of particles could be distinguished on the impactor surfaces. Multivariate methods, including mixture models and principal components analysis have been employed to enhance image resolution and aid in interpretation of the SIMS images.