A Brief History of Aerosol Carbon Analytical Methods

The history of carbonaceous aerosol characterization will be examined and reviewed with particular attention given to work done before 1985. The methods used that have led to the terms, black carbon, elemental carbon, and graphitic carbon will be described, and some of the past and current difficulties with the analytical characterization of an organic heterogeneous mixture discussed. Highlighted will be past work making use of thermal evolution methods, optical absorption, and spectroscopic characterization. Also the use of stable and radioisotopic measurements to aid in source determination will be reviewed in this talk.

This work was supported by the US Dept. of Energy's Atmospheric Science Program. The authors wish to thank Mr. Rick Petty of the U.S. DOE for his continuing support and encouragement.