Elemental composition and sources of particulate matter in the ambient air of a Metropolitan City

The concentrations of particulate matter (PM) fractions (PM2.5 and PM10) were determined concurrently at suburban and urban sites in Izmir, Turkey. The sampling period was between June 2004 and May 2005. The mean concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 were 24.1 ± 12.2 and 46.9 ± 20.1 μg m− 3 at the suburban site and 64.4 ± 38.5 and 80.0 ± 30.2 μg m− 3 at urban site, respectively. The PM concentrations showed significant temporal and spatial variations. The concentrations in winter were higher than in summer at urban site, whereas the summer concentrations of suburban site were higher than the winter values. The elemental composition of PM were determined measuring the concentrations of Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Sr, V, and Zn using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer. The elemental concentrations also showed temporal and spatial variations. The elemental compositions were dominated by the terrestrial elements (i.e., Ca, Na, Al, Fe, K). In order to determine the sources of PM, correlation matrixes and factor analysis were used. The results indicated that the major sources that contributed to the PM concentrations were the traffic emissions, the fossil fuel burning emissions, and soil/soil related industries.