CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND SOURCE APPORTIONMENT OF PM2.5 AT A SUBURBAN SITE IN THE NORTHWESTERN PART OF TURKEY

In this study, daily fine particulate matters (PM2.5) were sampled between Febru-ary 22, 2011 and February 22, 2012 in Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University Cam-pus. 277 PM2.5 samples were collected by using a stacked filter unit. The 51 ele-ments (Li, Be, Na, K, Mg, Al, P, S, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ge, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Y, Mo, Cd, Sn, Sb, Cs, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Eu, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, W, Pt, Au, Pb, Bi, Tl, Th, U) were determined using ICP-MS technique. The most frequently observed elements were Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ce, and Cd in PM2.5. Aluminum, Ca, Na, Fe, K, and Mg were the elements having the largest arithmetic means. The concentrations of elements in the summer seasons were higher than the concentrations of elements in the winter season except for As and Bi. Source apportionment of elements was performed by using positive matrix factorization. Five sources were determined for the samples namely sea salt (Na, K, Mg, Ca), coal combustion (As, Pb, Bi, Tl, Cd, Sb, Se, Mo), wood and coal combustion (K, Rb, Se, Cs, Sb, Pb, Bi, Tl, Fe, Mn, Cd), soil (Ca, Mg, Ti, Fe, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Th), and industrial activity - iron-steel works (Cr, Mo, Fe, Ni, Cu, Mn, Cd, Sb, Ca). The factor of wood and coal combustion showed the same trend in the region for the whole year.