Analysis of black carbon in environmental and biological media: Recent progresses and challenges

Black carbon is a byproduct of incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons and it has attracted widespread attention in various fields such as atmospheric chemistry, climate change, and environmental health. Accurate and reliable identification and quantification of black carbon in various complex samples is an important prerequisite for its research, which however is still a great challenge. Here, we summarize four categories of analytical methodologies for black carbon, i.e., microscopic, optical, mass spectrometry, and chemical analysis methods, in diverse samples including air, snow/ice, ocean, soil, sediment, and biological tissues. We specially focus on approaches to suppress the matrix interference effect in the analysis of black carbon. We also discuss the interdisciplinary studies involving the key environmental processes of black carbon. Finally, we give our perspectives on the challenges and prospects in this filed.