Chemical characteristics, morphology and source apportionment of PM₁₀ over National Capital Region (NCR) of India

The present study frames the physico-chemical characteristics and the source apportionment of PM₁₀ over National Capital Region (NCR) of India using the receptor model’s Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and Principal Momponent Mnalysis/Absolute Principal Component Score–Multilinear Regression (PCA/APCS-MLR). The annual average mass concentration of PM₁₀ over the urban site of Faridabad, IGDTUW-Delhi and CSIR-NPL of NCR-Delhi were observed to be 195 ± 121, 275 ± 141 and 209 ± 81 µg m⁻³, respectively. Carbonaceous species (organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC)), elemental constituents (Al, Ti, Na, Mg, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br, Ba, Mo Pb) and water-soluble ionic components (F⁻, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, NH₄⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) of PM₁₀ were entrenched to the receptor models to comprehend the possible sources of PM₁₀. The PMF assorted sources over Faridabad were soil dust (SD 15%), industrial emission (IE 14%), vehicular emission (VE 19%), secondary aerosol (SA 23%) and sodium magnesium salt (SMS 17%). For IGDTUW-Delhi, the sources were SD (16%), VE (19%), SMS (18%), IE (11%), SA (27%) and VE + IE (9%). Emission sources like SD (24%), IE (8%), SMS (20%), VE + IE (12%), VE (15%) and SA + BB (21%) were extracted over CSIR-NPL, New Delhi, which are quite obvious towards the sites. PCA/APCS-MLR quantified the similar sources with varied percentage contribution. Additionally, catalogue the Conditional Bivariate Probability Function (CBPF) for directionality of the local source regions and morphology as spherical, flocculent and irregular were imaged using a Field Emission–Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM).