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2627465 
Journal Article 
Black Carbon determination in particulate matter deposited on standard Teflon filters 
Cuccia, E; Massabo, D; Prati, P 
2010 
0 
Societa Italiana di Fisica. Nuovo Cimento B. Basic Topics in Physics
ISSN: 1594-9982 
125 
5-6 
633-642 
WOS:000281785600017 
Elemental Carbon (EC) is an important component of Particulate Matter (PM) and, when determined by optical method, it is usually referred as Black Carbon (BC). Teflon (PTFE (R)) membranes are very appropriate for gravimetric and compositional analyses of PM and 47 mm filters with 2 mu m pores are very often used to collect PM samples on daily basis. We describe here a simple, non-destructive, optical method to measure, on the PTFE filters routinely used for PM studies, the BC content basically without any sizeable extra-cost. This gives the opportunity to measure in each sample the concentration of: total PM by gravimetric analysis, metals by, for instance, X-Ray Fluorescence, major ions by Ion Chromatography and BC. All these pieces of information can therefore be obtained with just one filter and with the sureness to analyze the same PM. Time series of such data are the basic input to source apportionment methods by receptor models. Furthermore, this approach also allows the analysis of particular samples as those collected by multi-stage cascade impactors and thus it provides information on the BC size distribution.