Ambient Air Particulate and Particulate-Bound Hg (Hg[p]) Concentration: Dry Deposition Study Using a Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (CVAFS) Analyzer in Westin Park, Taiwan

Abstract

Ambient air particulate-bound Hg (Hg[p]) concentrations, dry deposition and dry deposition velocity were measured using a cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS) analyzer in the spring season (between March 2011 to June 2011) at the Westin Park sampling site, in Sha-Lu central Taiwan. The results indicated that the highest ambient air Hg(p) concentrations total suspended particles (TSP) occurred in April (0.050 ng/m³) while the lowest ambient air Hg(p) concentrations in TSP occurred in March (0.011 ng/m³). Moreover, the results showed that the highest Hg(p) dry deposition occurred in June (0.019 ng/m²*min), while the lowest ambient air Hg(p) dry deposition occurred in March (0.002 ng/m²*min). In addition, the results also showed that the highest and lowest dry deposition velocity for ambient air Hg(p) occurred in June (2.46 cm/sec) and May (0.18 cm/sec), respectively. Finally, the average highest and lowest dry deposition velocity for ambient air particulates occurred in March (9.010 cm/sec) and April (2.09 cm/sec), respectively.

Keywords:

• Dry deposition
• total suspended particles (TSP)
• particle bound mercury
• Hg(p)
• cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS)