Exploring the relationship between personal exposure to multiple water-soluble components and ROS in size-resolved PMs in solid fuel combustion households

Water-soluble species are the main components of particulate matters (PMs), which have important impacts on visibility, climate change and human health. Here, personal exposure (PE) to size-resolved PMs from housewives using different solid fuels (biomass and coal) was collected during winter in rural Yuncheng city, Fenwei Plain, China. The concentrations of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were higher in the biomass group than coal group, whereas the concentrations of water-soluble inorganic ions and water-soluble nitrogen were higher in the coal group than biomass group. Almost all measured water-soluble components in both groups showed a pattern of increasing concentration with decreasing particle size, with more than 50% of WSOC and water-soluble total nitrogen (WSTN) enriched in PM_0.25. The Pearson correlation result was in general agreement with the relationship between water-soluble components and ROS found by random forest model. There was a strong positive correlation between ROS and WSOC in PMs in the coal group, especially in PMs <0.25 μm, which may be due to the emission of a large number of transition metals chelated with WSOC from coal combustion. The contribution of Cl⁻ and F⁻ to ROS was greater in the biomass group. NO₂⁻ in both coal and biomass groups had a decent positive effect on ROS generation. The strongest positive linear correlation (R = 0.95) between ROS and K⁺ in total suspended particulates in the biomass group, whereas there was almost no contribution of K⁺ to ROS when particle size was distinguished or in random forest model, which reflects the specificity of K⁺ in inducing ROS. The present study provides new insights for a deeper exploration of the relationship between water-soluble components and oxidative potential in PE PMs from domestic combustion sources.