| dc.description.abstract | Air quality monitoring was carried out to determine the concentration of PM10 and its organic composition at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi City, and Simpang Empat (SE), Penang City. A High Volume Air Sampler (HVAS) equipped with glass fiber filter paper with a flow rate of 1.13 m3 per minute for 24 hours has been used to collect PM10 samples. The result shown the concentration of PM10 ranged between 44.8 µg/m³ to 59.9 µg/m³ witch is still under the permitted level as suggested by the Department of Malaysian Environment (DME), 150 µg/m³ for 24 hours A large number of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds from atmospheric particulates PM10 and soot samples were identified. The particulate organic matter was extracted by using ultrasonic agitation with organic solvents and characterized by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Most of the organic compounds identified from PM10 and their possible sources from soot samples consist of aliphatic compounds (alkanes, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, and fatty acids with both biogenic and anthropogenic origin. The molecular weight of the identified organic compounds including unresolved complex mixture (UCM) ranged between 98.14 g/mol and 408 g/mol. This study indicated that utilization of fossil fuels and biomass burning are the major contributors to the identified organic compounds in the semi-urban atmospheric area. | en_US |
