刊物：Environmental Science and Pollution Research
标题：Pollution characteristics of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in
the southeast coastal cities of China
作者：Lei Tong, Xu Liao, Jinsheng Chen*, Hang Xiao, Lingling Xu, Zhenchuan Niu,
et al
Abstract:
Introduction With the rapid urbanization, the southeast coastal cities of China are facing increasing air
pollution in the past decades. Large emissions of VOCs from vehicles and petrochemical factories have
contributed greatly to the local air quality deterioration. Investigating the pollution characteristics of
VOCs is of great significance to the environmental risk assessment and air quality improvement.
Methods Ambient VOC samples were collected simultaneously from nine coastal cities of southeast
China using the Tedlar bags, and were subsequently preprocessed and analyzed using a cryogenic
preconcentrator and a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system, respectively. VOC compositions,
spatial distributions, seasonal variations and ozone formation potentials (OPFs) were discussed.
Conclusions Results showed that methylene chloride, toluene, isopropyl alcohol and n-hexane were
most abundant species, and oxygenated compounds, aromatics and halogenated hydrocarbons were
most abundant chemical classes (62.5-95.6% of TVOCs). Both industrial and vehicular exhausts might
contribute greatly to the VOC emissions. The VOC levels in the southeast coastal cities of China were
sufficiently high (e.g. 6.5 µg m-3 for benzene) to pose a health risk to local people. A more serious
pollution state was found in the southern cities of the study region, while higher VOC levels were
usually observed in winter. The B/T ratio (0.26±0.09) was lower than the typical ratio (ca. 0.6) for
roadside samples, while the B/E (1.6-7.6) and T/E (7.2-26.8) ratios were higher than other cities around
the world, which indicated a unique emission profile in the study region. Besides, analysis on OFPs
indicated that toluene was the most important species in ozone production with the accountabilities for
total OFPs of 22.6% to 59.6%.
Key words: VOCs · Spatial distributions · Seasonal variations · BTEX · Ozone formation potentials
· Southeast coastal cities of China
Volume:
Page: DOI: ESPR-D-12-00720R1