Joint pollution and source apportionment of PM2.5 among three different urban environments in Sichuan Basin, China

The PM2.5 were sampled in three different urban environments: (city of) Chengdu, Leshan, and Dazhou, which are located in Sichuan Basin. 8 types of water-soluble ion and 25 types of metal element were measured in each PM2.5 sample across the seasons of 2017. The study results suggest that the joint PM2.5 pollution among the three cities mainly occurred in autumn and winter, and the air quality of Chengdu and Leshan was largely affected by Dazhou. Overall, the mass concentrations of PM2.5 of these three cities exhibited no statistically significant differences. However, Leshan had the highest level of ionic pollution, and the dominant form of inorganic compound in ambient PM2.5 was NH4NO3, and a competitive relationship between form of NH4NO3 and (NH4)2SO4 (NH4HSO4) was found as well. High homology between SO42− and NO3− has been observed in all the three cities, and the ratio between [SO42−] and [NO3−] indicated that the stationary source contributed the most to ambient PM2.5 in Dazhou. The mass concentrations of the total metal elements from the three cities exhibited similar levels, nevertheless, Dazhou had the highest mass fraction of total metal elements in PM2.5. The enrichment factor of each element indicated that the natural source was highly contributory to the crustal elements in PM2.5 of all the three cities, whereas Cr, Cu, Se, Mo, Cd, Tl and Bi were primarily originated from anthropogenic source. In addition, the source apportionment of PM2.5 suggest that Dazhou had the different factors and factor-contributions comparing with Chengdu and Leshan. [Display omitted] •Chemical compositions of PM2.5 were measured in parallel in different urban environments in Sichuan Basin, China.•Joint characteristics of PM2.5 pollution among these urban environments were analyzed.•Source apportionments of PM2.5 were conducted in these urban environments and different factors were determined.