Direct Analysis of Soil Composition for Source Apportionment by Laser Ablation Single-Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry

Soil has always been the most complex biomaterial on the planet. The rapid determination of the components in the soil and their original source is a prerequisite for soil quality, environmental, and human health risk assessments. In this study, the chemical compositions and source apportionment of surface soil samples collected from five sites in Shanghai, China, were successfully investigated using a laboratory-developed laser ablation single-particle aerosol mass spectrometry (LA-SPAMS) instrument combined with an adaptive resonance theory-based neural network algorithm (ART-2a) data-processing method for the first time. In total, more than 35,000 particles, ranging from 200 to 2000 nm, were sized, and around 15–20% of the particles were chemically analyzed by LA-SPAMS to generate both positive and negative mass spectra. The results show that there are significant differences in particle size distribution among the five samples, with peaks of various sizes and different profiles, while all five soil samples contain crustal elements, heavy metals, organic and inorganic components, and so forth. The chemical composition of each sample varied considerably, so different classes of SPAMS particle classes were identified, which were later grouped into seven general categories: EC-rich (containing elemental carbon), secondary components, organic nitrogen, crust, HM (containing heavy metal), PAH (containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and NaK-rich particles, based on the dominant marked ions. The composition analysis and source apportionment showed that soil components in different areas have been affected by the local environment, such as local industrial emissions and automobile exhaust, which are usually characterized by varying degrees of mixing between the crust and environmental aerosols. In combination with the ART-2a method, LA-SPAMS enables rapid and direct analysis of soil samples based on real-time single-particle measurements, which will help in understanding the distribution, transport, and fate of the soil components, thus providing new insights into soil-quality assessment. Moreover, the established LA-SPAMS can also be practically applied to other daily inspection tasks, such as rocks, minerals, metals, ceramics, polymers, and other solid materials for ingredient analysis and quality evaluation.