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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-1147</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Continuous chemical characterization of ultrafine particulate matter (PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt;)</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Argyropoulou</surname>
<given-names>Georgia A.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9993-931X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Florou</surname>
<given-names>Kalliopi</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9766-656X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pandis</surname>
<given-names>Spyros N.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, ICE-HT/FORTH, Patras, 265 04, Greece</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, 265 04, Greece</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>24</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2025</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>28</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Georgia A. Argyropoulou et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1147/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1147/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1147/egusphere-2025-1147.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1147/egusphere-2025-1147.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Ultrafine particles (diameter less than 100 nm) are primary suspects for enhanced negative health effects on humans. Measuring the chemical composition and physical properties of ultrafine particles on-line, continuously, and accurately is particularly challenging because of their typically low mass concentration (PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt;) and susceptibility to interference from larger particles. The few past PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; chemical composition measurement studies have used cascade impactors and at least daily temporal resolution. In this study we perform for the first time high temporal measurements of the composition and sources of PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; using an aerodynamic aerosol classifier (AAC) to separate PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; from larger particles. A high-resolution time of flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS, for sulfate, nitrate, organics, chloride), a single particle soot photometer (SP2-XR, for black carbon) and an Xact625i (for elements) are also used.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ambient PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; composition measurements were conducted in a suburban area in Greece to test the system. The hourly PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; levels varied from 0.4 to 1.5 &amp;mu;g m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;, with an average of 0.7 &amp;mu;g m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;. Most of the PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; (45 %) was organic aerosol (OA). On average, sulfates contributed 14 %, ammonium 7 %, nitrate 3 %, and black carbon 4 % to PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt;. Calcium (Ca) showed a surprising high average contribution to PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; (18 %). The rest of the detected elements were Fe, K, Zn and Ti, contributing together 7 %. Source apportionment analysis showed that most of the PM&lt;sub&gt;0.1&lt;/sub&gt; OA, during this summertime period, was oxygenated OA (90 %), with 70 % being less oxidized and 20 % being more oxidized, while only 10 % was fresh hydrocarbon-like OA.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation</funding-source>
<award-id>11504</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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