Effectively removing gaseous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by willow catkins: Do you still dislike the catkins floating?

The floating catkins generated by willow and poplar trees have been criticized for spreading germ and causing fire for decades. It has been found that catkins are with a hollow tubular structure, which made us wonder if the floating catkins can adsorb atmospheric pollutions. Thus, we conducted a project in Harbin, China to investigate whether and how willow catkins could adsorb atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results suggest that both the catkins floating in the air and on the ground preferred to adsorb gaseous PAHs rather than particulate PAHs. Moreover, 3- and 4-ring PAHs were the dominating compositions adsorbed by catkins, which significantly increased with exposure time. The gas/catkins partition (K_CG) was defined, which explained why 3-ring PAHs are more easily adsorbed by catkins than by airborne particles when their subcooled liquid vapor pressure is high (log P_L > −1.73). The removal loading of atmospheric PAHs by catkins were estimated as 1.03 kg/year in the center city of Harbin, which may well explain the phenomenon that levels of gaseous and total (particle + gas) PAHs are relatively low in the months with catkins floating reported in peer-reviewed papers.