Optical properties of Black Carbon and the Impact of COVID-19 of BC Emission in a cold-climate urban site

Abstract:

Black carbon (BC) is the by-product of incomplete biomass and fossil fuel combustion, accounting for 10% of total aerosols in the atmosphere. It plays a unique role in climate change by absorbing light, serving as ice nuclei or cloud condensation nuclei. However, the impact of BC is under intense debate, as a consequence of lack of exactly understanding how BC interacts with the environment. This project is aimed to figure out whether BC is an important type of aerosols. To achieve this goal, the sources of BC in urban environment, mass concentration, size distribution and optical properties of BC are studied at the first stage. Furthermore, carbonaceous nanomaterials, such as graphene, carbon nanotube and carbon quantum dots will be applied to research on the ice nucleation of BC to find out critical parameters (e.g. components, size, optical properties, contact angles) in modeling work. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the real-time data of BC have been collected in the prior to the closure, during the total closure and after re-opening in Montreal. The results contribute to the understanding anthropogenic of BC emission and the role of black carbon in climate change and the betterment of regulatory policy on black carbon emission.