Spectrochemical Analytical Characterisation of Particulate Matter Emissions Generated from In-Use Diesel Engine Vehicles

Pollutant emissions from vehicles form major sources of metallic nanoparticles entering the environment and surrounding atmosphere. In this research, we spectrochemically analyse the chemical composition of particle matter emissions from in-use diesel engine passenger vehicles. We extracted diesel particulate matter from the end part of the tail pipes of more than 70 different vehicles. In the laboratory, we used the high-resolution laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) spectrochemical analytical technique to sensitively analyse chemical elements in different DPM samples. We found that PM is composed of major, minor and trace chemical elements. The major compound in PM is not strictly carbon but also other adsorbed metallic nanoparticles such as iron, chromium, magnesium, zinc and calcium. Besides the major elements in DPM, there are also minor elements: silicon, nickel, titan, potassium, strontium, molybdenum and others. Additionally, in DPM are adsorbed atomic trace elements like barium, boron, cobalt, copper, phosphorus, manganese and platinum. All these chemical elements form the significant atomic composition of real PM from in-use diesel engine vehicles.