Measurement report: Size-resolved particle effective density measured by an AAC-SMPS and implications for chemical composition

<p>The effective density (<span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span>) is closely associated with the aging process and can serve as a tracer of chemical composition. Recently, studies investigating the effect of particle size on den...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Y. Song, J. Wei, W. Zhao, J. Ding, X. Pei, F. Zhang, Z. Xu, R. Shi, Y. Wei, L. Zhang, L. Jin, Z. Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2025-05-01
Series:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Online Access:https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/4755/2025/acp-25-4755-2025.pdf
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Summary:<p>The effective density (<span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span>) is closely associated with the aging process and can serve as a tracer of chemical composition. Recently, studies investigating the effect of particle size on density have been limited. In this study, size-resolved <span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span> was characterized using a tandem aerodynamic aerosol classifier (AAC) and scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) system during 1 month of observations in Hangzhou. The results indicate that the <span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span> values of the particles exhibit a unimodal distribution, with average values ranging from 1.47 to 1.63 g cm<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−3</sup></span>, increasing as the particle diameter increases. The diurnal variation is more pronounced for small particles (<span class="inline-formula"><i>d</i><sub>ae</sub></span> <span class="inline-formula"><i>&lt;</i></span> 350 nm), which generally exhibit lower density during the day and higher density at night. The relationship between <span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span> and particle diameter varies under different pollution conditions due to differences in the chemical composition of the particles. The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values revealed good relationships between <span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span> and the bulk composition of particles with diameters smaller than 350 nm, while the relationship with larger particles was weak. As determining the size-resolved chemical composition of particles remains challenging, a new method to investigate the size-resolved chemical composition was proposed, in which the size-resolved composition can be derived from the <span class="inline-formula"><i>ρ</i><sub>eff</sub></span> and fixed material density of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIAs), organic aerosols (OAs), and black carbon (BC).</p>
ISSN:1680-7316
1680-7324