Source apportionment of atmospheric carbonaceous particulate matter based on the radiocarbon

A method was established to quantitatively estimate sources of atmospheric carbonaceous matter, using a combination of radiocarbon technology, linear regression of organic carbon (OC) -K+ and elemental carbon (EC) tracer method. Fractional contributions of fossil fuels, biomass burning, biogenic secondary organic carbon (BSOC) and soil dust to the atmospheric size-resolved carbonaceous matters in Shanghai suburb were estimated using this new method. The fossil carbon contributed most of the OC in particles smaller than 0.49 μm, and its fraction decreased with the increase of particle size. Biomass burning contributed 17–28 % to the OC. The BSOC contributed comparable proportions to the OC in particles smaller than 3.0 μm with the biomass burning, but larger in the particles lager than 3.0 μm. The soil dust contributed least fraction to the OC of each size with a proportion of 2–13 %. The biomass burning and fossil sources shared comparable fraction of the EC in all size range.