Recent Developments in the Determination of PM(2.5) Chemical Composition

Fine particulate matter (named PM(2.5)) has become a prominent and dangerous form of air pollution. The chemical composition of PM(2.5) mainly includes inorganic elements, water soluble ions, elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and organic compounds. The detection method for inorganic elements mainly includes X ray fluorescence, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. As for water soluble ions, ion chromatography is the most common detection method. EC and OC are usually detected by carbon analyzer. The organic compounds are determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. In this paper, the merits and drawbacks of each analytical methods for the determination of PM(2.5) chemical composition are summarized. This review also includes our discussion on the improvement of the analytical accuracy for the determination of PM(2.5) chemical composition owing to the development of reference materials.