Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Radiocarbon enables a distinction between contemporary and fossil carbon, which can be used for the apportionment of biogenic and anthropogenic sources in environmental studies. In order to apply this approach to carbonaceous atmospheric aerosols, it is necessary to adapt pretreatment procedures to the requirements of 14 C measurements. In this work, we followed an approach in which total carbon (TC) is subdivided into fractions of different chemical and physical properties. 14 C data of ambient aerosols from Zürich (Switzerland) are presented for the 2 sub-fractions of TC, organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC). Furthermore, OC is separated into water-insoluble OC (WINSOC) and water-soluble OC (WSOC). Results demonstrate the importance to differentiate between these fractions for 14 C-deduced source apportionment, as the contributions can range between both extremes, nearly exclusively biogenic and anthropogenic.
Szidat et al. (2004) studied this question.