The paper presents results of investigations carried out in 2005 at six crossroads in Zabrze. The investigations comprised determinations of vehicular traffic intensity, observations of meteorological conditions and, as a main subject, determinations of concentrations of PM2.5 and PM 10 at all observed sites. Structure of ambient aerosol in the vicinity of crossroads was compared with the structure of aerosol at a reference measuring point, located beyond effects of vehicular traffic, by determining a share of PM2.5 in PM 10 for cach site. At a selected crossroad the measurements lasted 11 days and the sampled dust was analyzed for chemical composition of surface of its particles with the use of the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Both the most abundant and trace elements in the surface layer of dust sampled at the crossroads were identified.

The surface properties of particles emitted from six selected coal-fired power and heating plants in Poland have been studied in this work for the first time. Samples were collected beyond the control systems. Surface composition of the size-distributed particles was obtained by photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

The reflection of the smallest, submicron particles was also measured to calculate their specific/mass absorption. The surface layer of the emitted particles was clearly dominated by oxygen, followed by silicon and carbon. The sum of the relative concentration of these elements was between 85.1% and 91.1% for coarse particles and 71.8–93.4% for fine/submicron particles. Aluminum was typically the fourth or fifth, or at least the sixth most common element. The mass absorption of the submicron particles emitted from the studied plants ranged from 0.02 m2g-1 to 0.03 m2g-1. Only specific absorption obtained for the “Nowy Wirek” heating plant was significantly higher than in other studied plants probably because the obsolete fire grate is used in this heating plant.

The obtained results suggest that the power/heating-plant-emitted fine particles contain less carbonaceous material/elemental carbon on their surfaces than those that are typical in urban air.