Characterization of carbon nanoparticles in ambient aerosols by scanning electron microscopy and model calculations

Size-selected aerosol samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to explore (1) the relative concentration of individual and aggregated carbon nanoparticles (C-NPs) and (2) the combustion behavior of C-NP agglomerates. SEM analysis of low-coverage aerosol deposits showed that most of the C-NP matter is present in the form of chain-type agglomerates. The individual C-NPs in the agglomerates are remarkably similar in diameter (40+/-5 nm) and appear to be very tightly bound to the neighboring NPs. Comparison with literature data suggests that the agglomerates originated from diesel exhaust. After gently removing the water-soluble compounds from relatively thick layers of aerosol matter, the residues were exposed to increasing temperatures, for 1 hr at each step, followed by SEM analysis of the same sample area. C-NP agglomerates were found to disappear rapidly at temperatures exceeding approximately 470 degrees C. This observation constitutes the first direct visualization of the combustion of what appears to be the most important fraction of elemental carbon in ambient aerosol matter. The experimental studies were complemented by simple model calculations that aimed at assessing the size-dependent mass fraction of individual C-NPs in ambient aerosol matter. The results suggest that the mass fraction decreases from 20+/-10% at particle diameters of approximately 30-40 nm to less than 0.1% above 300 nm.