10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Uptake of Tobacco Related Reduced Nitrogen Species to Aqueous Aerosols
PETER DECARLO, Anita Avery, Erin Katz, Michael Waring, Drexel University
Abstract Number: 1436 Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract Indoor and outdoor summertime measurements of aerosol composition identified a unique organic signature in the indoor dataset. Measurements of organic aerosol composition in an unoccupied classroom showed a high fraction of the organic mass was attributed to reduced nitrogen species identified by ions in the mass spectra of the general formula: CxHyNz. Positive Matrix Factorization of the organic aerosol showed 25-29% of the indoor aerosol was attributable to this indoor source. Through subsequent controlled laboratory experiments, these reduced nitrogen related ions were identified as originating from aged residual tobacco smoke volatilizing from surfaces or clothing in the indoor environment. Controlled laboratory experiments using deposited tobacco smoke in a pyrex vessel in coordination with observational data provided evidence of reactive uptake through acid base chemistry. Further experiments with deposited e-cigarette emissions showed similar behavior initially, but with increasing residence time, e-cigarette residue resulted in stable chemical signatures of nicotine and other e-cigarette liquid constituents (glycol and flavorings) compared to the chemical transformation observed for cigarette residue. While the results are generated from indoor observation of these species, the acid-base reactive uptake mechanism of reduced nitrogen species is applicable to outdoor aerosols and expected to be important in areas where amines and other reduced nitrogen compounds are prevalent.