Seasonal and spatial changes of free and bound organic acids in total suspended particles in Guangzhou, China

The concentrations and compositions of free and bound organic acids in total suspended particles from typical urban, suburban and forest park sites of Guangzhou were determined in this study. The free form of organic acids (solvent extractable) in aerosols in Guangzhou varied with site and season. The suburban samples contained the highest contents of alkanoic, alkenoic and dicarboxylic acids. These findings were consistent with a higher supply of hydrocarbons and NOx in the suburban area. However, concentrations of aromatic acids were similar in the urban, suburban and forest park sites. Generally, winter season samples of the acids from anthropogenic sources contained more organic acids than summer season samples due to stronger removal by wet deposition in the summer. For the acids from botanic sources, the summer season samples were higher. In addition to the free acids, bound acids (solvent non-extractable) mainly formed by esterification of free acids were also found in the samples. In general, bound acids were higher than free acids. Esterification is mainly controlled by the pKa of organic acids and the atmospheric pH value. This explains why aromatic and dicarboxylic acids occur mainly as bound forms and why the samples from urban sites contained high levels of bound acids as the pH of rain water can reach 4.53. trations of alkanoic and alkenoic acids in the aerosols of Guangzhou were much higher than those in the other areas studied.