AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Volatility and Activity Coefficients of Levoglucosan in Artificial and Quasi-Ambient Organic Aerosols
ANDREY KHLYSTOV, Suqi Huang, Ming-Yeng Lin, Research Triangle Institute
Abstract Number: 596 Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere
Abstract Source apportionment models use tracer compounds to determine contribution of different sources to aerosol concentration measured at a receptor site. In order to be a reliable tracer, the compound needs to be specific for a certain source category and be conserved in the atmosphere, i.e. should not change significantly by reactions or volatilization during transport from the source. In this study, volatility of a wood smoke tracer, levoglucosan, was investigated both in pure form and in mixtures with monocarboxylic acids and aqueous extracts of ambient aerosol. Basic thermodynamic properties of levoglucosan and its activity coefficients in the mixtures will be presented. It will be sown that levoglucosan is a semivolatile compound which volatility depends on the polarity of the mixture.