Wet deposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): Acenaphtylene, Fluorene ve Phenanthrene’s in Erzurum city atmosphere.

Abstract

In this study, the wet deposition (snow, rain) concentrations and deposition flux of 3 (Acenaphtylene, Fluorene and Phenanthrene) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated for the term of January-July 2012 in Atatürk University campus area which is a semi-urban area in the center of Erzurum city. A total of 20 precipitation samples (snow+rain), 10 of them as snow in the period of January-March and the other 10 of them as rain in the period of April-July, was collected during the sampling period. The highest PAH concentration of collected precipitation (snow, rain) samples in the center of Erzurum city was measured as 134,9 ng L^-1 for the component of Phenanthrene, 68.3 ng L^-1 the component of Fluorene, 65.6 ng L^-1 for the component of Acenaphtylene. In addition, it was observed that 19% of PAH compounds were in the non-dissolved (PM) phase, while 81% of them were in dissolved phase for all collected samples. On the other hand, the highest value of wet deposition flux was calculated as 170 ng m^-2 day^-1 for the component of Phenanthrene, while its lowest value  was 159 ng m^-2 day^-1 for the component of Fluorene. The mean liquid phase concentration was measured as 469.1 ng L^-1, while the mean concentration of PM phase of 3 PAH compounds was 104.9 ng L^-1 in the same winter period. On the other hand, the mean concentration of the filtrate and PM phase of 3 PAH compounds were calculated as 99.2 and 402.5 ng L^-1 in the summer period, respectively. When the results was compared with other similar results, it was observed that the values of atmospheric PAH concentration and flux in the city of Erzurum center were lower than that of intensive industrial areas given in literature  and higher than that of rural and semi-urban areas.