This dataset contains measurements of organic carbon, elemental carbon, and total carbon in atmospheric particulate matter with the thermal-optical carbon analyzer. The data are associated with the following publication: C.D. Grimes, J.M. Conny, R.R. Dickerson, 2020, "Evaluation of Thermal-Optical Analysis Using an Aqueous Binary Mixture," Atmospheric Environment, in press. Below is the abstract for the publication.

Thermal-Optical Analysis (TOA), a commonly implemented technique used to measure the amount of particulate carbon in the atmosphere or deposited on a filter substrate, distinguishes organic carbon (OC) from elemental carbon (EC) through the monitoring of laser light, heating, and measuring evolved carbon. Here, we present a method to characterize the TOA transmission method with an aqueous binary mixture containing EC and OC that can easily be deposited onto a filter at low volumes. Known amounts of EC and OC were deposited onto a quartz-fiber filter and analyzed with different temperature protocols. Results with the NIST-EPA-C temperature protocol agreed with the reference values to better than 2 % for EC, OC, total carbon (TC), and EC/TC. Uncertainty in TC among all temperature protocols was less than 5 % of the reference value while all protocols had EC/TC ratios with an uncertainty less than 10 %.