title: Stable carbon isotope ratio in atmospheric CO2 collected by new diffusive devices.
abstract: In this paper, stable carbon isotope ratios (δ (13)C) were determined in the atmosphere by using a Ca-based sorbent, CaO/Ca12Al14O33 75:25 w/w, for passively collecting atmospheric CO2, in both field and laboratory experiments. Field measurements were conducted in three environments characterized by different carbon dioxide sources. In particular, the environments under consideration were a rather heavily trafficked road, where the source of CO2 is mostly vehicle exhaust, a rural unpolluted area, and a private kitchen where the major source of CO2 was gas combustion. Samplers were exposed to the free atmosphere for 3 days in order to allow collection of sufficient CO2 for δ(13)C analysis, then the collected CO2 was desorbed from the adsorbent with acid treatment, and directly analyzed by nondispersive infrared (NDIR) instrument. δ (13)C results confirmed that the samplers collected representative CO2 samples and no fractionation occurred during passive trapping, as also confirmed by an appositely designed experiment conducted in the laboratory. Passive sampling using CaO/Ca12Al14O33 75:25 w/w proved to be an easy and reliable method to collect atmospheric carbon dioxide for δ (13)C analysis in both indoor and outdoor places.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biology, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084, Fisciano, Salerno, Italy, aproto@unisa.it.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Proto
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cucciniello
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Oriana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Motta
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000032:analysis; D017610:Calcium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry; D001335:Vehicle Emissions
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D017610:Calcium Compounds; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D010087:Oxides; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C016538:lime