To my knowledge, trees play a pivotal role in mitigating air pollution. The stomatal opening of leaves act as sink for gases to enter into, once they're inside they diffuse into the inter cellular spaces and are absorbed in the surface of palisade or spongy parenchyma. Apart from gases they also act as sink surface for particulate matter to settle on for this, the larger the leaf circumference the larger capacity of the leaf to hold dust, its even better if has a waxy surface. The nettle leaf is a good example of that.