You are here:
Factorial Based Response Surface Modeling with Confidence Intervals for Optimizing Thermal Optical Transmission Analysis of Atmospheric Black Carbon
Citation:
Conny, J. M., G. A. NORRIS, AND T. R. Gould. Factorial Based Response Surface Modeling with Confidence Intervals for Optimizing Thermal Optical Transmission Analysis of Atmospheric Black Carbon. ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 635(2):144-156, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools are improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
We demonstrate how thermal-optical transmission analysis (TOT) for refractory light-absorbing carbon in atmospheric particulate matter was optimized with empirical response surface modeling. TOT employs pyrolysis to distinguish the mass of black carbon (BC) from organic carbon (OC); however, it does not physically separate them. The optimization compared response surface for the cross sections, which revealed the effects of varying instrument conditions, in particular, the high-temperature pyrolysis step in helium.
URLs/Downloads:
Analytica Chimica Acta
Factorial-Based Response Surface Modeling with Confidence Intervals for Optimizing Thermal-Optical Transmission Analysis of Atmospheric Black Carbon (PDF, NA pp, 6861 KB, about PDF)