Sources of fine organic aerosol. 3. Road dust, tire debris, and organometallic brake lining dust: roads as sources and sinks

Particulate matter emitted to the atmosphere due to motor arises from several sources in addition to tailpipe . In this study, the organic constituents present fine particulate (d_p ≤ 2.0 µm) road dust, brake lining particles, and tire tread debris (not size segregated) analyzed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. objective is to characterize such traffic-related on an organic compound basis and to search for markers that will assist the identification of -associated dusts in the urban atmosphere. More 100 organic compounds are quantified in these , including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids, n-alkenoic , n-alkanals, n-alkanols, benzoic acids, benzaldehydes, glycol ethers, PAH, oxy-PAH, steranes, , natural resins and other compound classes. road dust acts as a repository for vehicle-related , which can then be resuspended by the passing . To evaluate the contributions from major urban to the road dust complex, source profiles representing different types of vehicle exhaust, brake dust, tire debris, and vegetative detritus are compared, and their fractional contributions are estimated using several groups of organic tracer compounds. Likewise, the close relationship between airborne fine particulate organic constituents and road dust organic matter is discussed.