Primary particulate emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from idling diesel vehicle exhaust in China

In China diesel vehicles dominate the primary emission of particulate matters from on-road vehicles, and they might also contribute substantially to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA). In this study tailpipe exhaust of three typical in-use diesel vehicles under warm idling conditions was introduced directly into an indoor smog chamber with a 30m3 Teflon reactor to characterize primary emissions and SOA formation during photo-oxidation. The emission factors of primary organic aerosol (POA) and black carbon (BC) for the three types of Chinese diesel vehicles ranged 0.18–0.91 and 0.15–0.51gkg-fuel−1, respectively; and the SOA production factors ranged 0.50–1.8gkg-fuel−1 and SOA/POA ratios ranged 0.7–3.7 with an average of 2.2. The fuel-based POA emission factors and SOA production factors from this study for idling diesel vehicle exhaust were 1–3 orders of magnitude higher than those reported in previous studies for idling gasoline vehicle exhaust. The emission factors for total particle numbers were 0.65–4.0×1015particleskg-fuel−1, and particles with diameters less than 50nm dominated in total particle numbers. Traditional C2-C12 precursor non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) could only explain less than 3% of the SOA formed during aging and contribution from other precursors including intermediate volatile organic compounds (IVOC) needs further investigation. [Display omitted] •Primary and secondary OA of diesel exhaust characterized with a smog chamber.•Much higher primary and secondary OA from diesel vehicles than gasoline ones•Higher diesel vehicle primary emission and secondary production of OA in China•Traditional precursor VOCs explained less than 3% SOA formed during aging.•Particle number emission factors of 0.65–4.0×1015#kg-fuel−1 for diesel vehicles