A Brief History of Aerosol Carbon Analytical Methods

There has been significant interest in the role that carbonaceous aerosols play as radiatively important species in climate and visibility reduction, as potential toxic agents to human health in urban regions, and as surfaces that can catalyze atmospheric chemical reactions. These aerosols are a mixture of primary organic matter that is emitted from a number of sources, including mobile sources such as diesel engines, and secondary species formed from the tropospheric oxidation of primary organics from both anthropogenic and biogenic sources. Carbonaceous aerosols are therefore highly heterogeneous in nature and consist of complex mixtures of both semi-volatile and more refractory material. The semi-volatile material can consist of both primary and secondary organic matter and has been referred to generically as organic carbon in most analytical papers. The more refractory material has been referred to as elemental, sooty, graphitic or black carbon.