AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Quantification of Organic Molecules as Potential Tracers for Anthropogenic Secondary Organic Aerosol
ELIZABETH STONE, Ibrahim Al Naghemah, Josh Kettler, University of Iowa
Abstract Number: 366 Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere
Abstract Aerosols come from a combination of natural and anthropogenic sources, yet the human contribution to ambient aerosol loadings is not well defined, particularly for carbonaceous aerosol. The current knowledge of the precursors, mechanisms of formation, and properties of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is incomplete, leaving major gaps in understanding how and to what extent SOA impacts air quality and climate. The roles of natural and anthropogenic precursors in SOA formation are highly uncertain, and report varying roles of biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC) as precursors to SOA. In elucidating aerosol sources, receptor measurements of organic molecular markers have proven useful. However, anthropogenic SOA tracers are currently limited to very few molecules for which analytical standards are not commercially available. Hence, there is a need to develop and evaluate tracers of anthropogenic SOA and more accurately quantify its contribution to ambient aerosol. New approaches to quantifying products of benzene, toluene, naphthalene, and methyl-napthalene SOA in ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5¬) have been developed. Specifically, gas chromatography-based methods have been developed to quantify monoaromatic nitro-compounds and furandiones and liquid chromatography-based methods have been developed to quantify organosulfur compounds (sulfonates and organosulfates). Method development, validation, and results from recent field studies will be discussed.