Invenstigation of the relations between the organic carbon and elemental carbon in urban and rural atmospheres

In this study daily coarse and fine particulate samples were collected in stations located at Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University campus, a semi-rural area, Kutahya city center and a rural area located at the Tavşanlı town, Gobel. Number of samples collected in Bolu station was limited due to the mulfactions experienced with the samplers and therefore, Bolu results were not included in this thesis. Kutahya city center and Gobel satations samples were evaluated. 251 PM2,5 and 105 PM2,5-10 daily samples were collected between June 2014 and December 2014. Besides, 294 PM2,5 and 105 PM2,5-10 samples were collected in parellel to the city center samplings. Low volume (16.7 L/min) dichotomous samplers were used for the collection of fine and coarse particles. Samples were collected on 37 mm quartz fiber filters. Organic and elemental carbons on the quartz filters were determined by using a Sunset Thermal/Optical OC/EC analyzer. Fractions of organic carbons were determined according to the NIOSH 870 Protocol. Medians of OC and EC concentrations for the fine particles in Kutahya city center were 11.07 µg/m3 and 2.31 µg/m3, respectively. Median values of OC and EC for the coarse particles in city center station were 2.6 µg/m3 and 0.2 µg/m3, respectively. OC and EC medians observed in the fine samples of rural station were 3.79 µg/m3 and 0.33 µg/m3, respectively. 2.52 µg/m3 OC and 0.09 µg/m3 EC as medians were observed in the rural station for the coarse samples. Fine samples showed increasing median values in winter season when compared with the summer samples. NO, NO2, SO2 and O3 concentrationswere also monitored in parallel to PM samplings and especially the ozone was used to study secondary organic carbons and sulfur dioxide was used to search for the pollution source regions.