Hygroscopicity of materials internally mixed with black carbon measured in Tokyo

Black carbon (BC) aerosols become internally mixed with non-BC compounds (BC coatings) during aging in the atmosphere. In this study, we measured the hygroscopicity parameter κ on a single-particle basis for both BC-coating materials (κBC-coat) and BC-free particles (κBC-free) in the urban atmosphere of Tokyo, using a single-particle soot photometer (SP2). In our measurement system, dry ambient particles were first mass selected by an aerosol particle mass analyzer, then humidified, and then passed to the SP2 for detection of their refractory BC mass content and optical diameter. A quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer was also employed to interpret the hygroscopicity data. During the observation period, the measured κBC-coat generally agreed with κBC-free to within ±25% and was usually in typical range for inorganic and organic aerosols. These results indicate that BC-coating materials and BC-free particles in Tokyo usually had similar chemical compositions, internal mixtures of inorganic and organic compounds, even in a source region. However, occasionally κBC-coat was much higher than κBC-free values, when the mass concentrations of BC and organic aerosols were poorly correlated. This indicates external mixing of BC-containing and BC-free particles from different sources. These findings improve our understanding of the cloud condensation nuclei activity of BC-containing particles, which strongly influences their wet removal, and optical properties in the ambient air.