Determination of atmospheric soot carbon with a simple thermal method
Open accessAbstract
The dark component of carbonaceous aerosols is often referred to as “soot carbon”. Soot consists of pure elemental carbon along with highly polymerized organic matter. An accurate discrimination between the soot carbon and the other components of carbonaceous aerosols is difficult to obtain by thermal analytical processes. Here, we report an optimization of a 2-step thermal method focused on the soot carbon determination of atmospheric particles. The organic material which does not absorb visible light is removed from the collection substrate under a pure oxygen flow during a precombustion step which has been carefully optimized in terms of temperature (340°C) and duration (2 h). The remaining carbon content is determined by coulometric titration of the CO2 evolved from the combustion of the samples. The method has been tested quantitatively for analytical artefacts (e.g., “soot” production due to the charring of organics; soot losses during the preheating step) by using various standards such as pure graphite, pure organic and natural biogenic compounds and replicates of ambient air samples collected in urban, rural and forested areas in France. The results obtained so far indicate that this approach satisfactorily distinguishes between organic and soot carbon and allows reliable soot carbon determination at the μg level in atmospheric samples from a wide variety of environments. This study confirms that soot carbon is not composed primarily of elemental carbon. It appears to be a variable mixture of highly condensed organic compounds. These compounds may be either combustion-derived material or the result of low-temperature gas-to-particle conversion processes.
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Work by Cachier et al. (1989) has shown that treatment at 330 °C will remove organic contaminants with minimal removal of black carbon from aerosol samples.
“Work by Cachier et al. (1989) has shown that this treatment will remove organic contaminants with minimal removal of black carbon from aerosol samples.”
From Radiocarbon Dating of “Old” Charcoal Using a Wet Oxidation, Stepped-Combustion Procedure (1999) · cites this paper as Cachier et al. (1989)
Section 3.4 says precombustion removes organic matter while seeking to minimize soot-carbon loss. It specifies 340 °C for two hours—not 330 °C—and estimates a 24% loss of refractory carbon under those conditions, so the claim’s temperature and unqualified description of minimal loss are not supported. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 29 · Cited by 339
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Cachier, H. 1987. Atmospheric particulate carbon cycle; evidence from isotopic measurements. Ph.D. Thesis (in French). Universitt Paris 7, 234 pp.
- Goldberg, E. D. 1985. Black carbon in the environment (propertiesanddistribution). New York: Wiley, 198 pp.
- Turco, R. P., Toon, 0. B., Whitten, R. C., Pollack, J. B. and Hamill, P. 1982. The global cycle of particulate elemental carbon : a theoretical assess- ment. In : Precipitation. scavenging, dry deposition and resuspension, vol. 2. New York: Elsevier, 1337-1351.
- Authors
- Cachier, H., Bremond, M.-P., & Buat-Ménard, P.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology
- Publisher
- Stockholm University Press
- Published
- 1989-01-01
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 379
- ISSN
- 0280-6509 (ISSN-L)
- 1600-0889
- OpenAlex
- W2114765255
- Cited by
- 339
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 2.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Tellus B (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes › Advanced Combustion Engine Technologies
- Keywords
- carbonaceous aerosols, thermal analysis, coulometric titration, organic carbon removal, elemental carbon, gas-to-particle conversion, atmospheric aerosols
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