Volatility Measurements of Individual Components of Biomass Burning Organic Aerosol

QIAORONG XIE, Yun-Jung Hsu, Pooja Chaudhary, Diego Calderon-Arrieta, Emily Halpern, Christopher P. West, Katherine Hopstock, Sergey Nizkorodov, Chunlin Li, Yinon Rudich, Baerbel Sinha, Alexander Laskin, Purdue University

     Abstract Number: 356
     Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods

Abstract
Biomass burning organic aerosols (BBOA) have profound effects on air quality, visibility, and radiative forcing of climate. Quantitative assessment of gas−particle partitioning of BBOA components is critical to understand their formation, growth, distribution, and evolution in the atmosphere. Here, we apply a novel method of temperature programmed desorption – direct analysis in real time – high resolution mass spectrometry (TPD-DART-HRMS) to measure the volatility distribution and variation of individual components in fresh and aged biomass burning BBOA. The BBOA produced by the burning of various solid fuels were sampled at test laboratory and filed studies. Then, they were exposed to photolysis by simulated sunlight. The apparent enthalpies of sublimation and saturation vapor pressure as a function of temperature of individual components in complex BBOA are obtained from acquired TPD-DART-HRMS records. The volatility distribution of organic components of BBOA specific to the burning of various biofuels is therefore investigated. Comparison of the saturation vapor pressure of individual components between fresh and aged BBOA describes their volatility variations, informing predictive understanding of BBOA ageing evolution. Our research demonstrates a new analytical method for volatility measurement of individual components in BBOA, which would have important implications for atmospheric modeling.