Abstract : Ambient atmospheric aerosol is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, originating from a variety of natural and man-made sources. These microscopic particles have profound impacts on the global climate system as well as human health. The organic fraction of atmospheric aerosol is an extremely complex mixture which is not yet fully characterized. These unknown organic aerosol species contribute to the uncertainty in the effect of aerosol on climate and uncertainty in overall ambient aerosol toxicity. Light absorbing organic aerosol can interact with incoming solar radiation and contribute to atmospheric heating; however, the source apportionment and overall fate of these absorbing organic aerosol species are not fully understood. The burning of woody and vegetative materials (biomass) is expected to be one source, while secondary chemical reactions in aqueous phase aerosol and liquid water droplets are another. In this work, we have analyzed ambient samples from the Po Valley (Italy) and Pacific Northwest (USA) influenced by biomass burning. Using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and subsequent molecular formula assignment, we observe an extreme level of molecular complexity in atmospheric aerosol. We make several key observations regarding both biomass burning organic aerosol and aqueous phase processing based on the molecular details and the observed elemental trends in the assigned formulas. We estimate oxidation levels, heteroatom functionalization, aromatic character, volatility and glass transition temperature based on reliable molecular formula assignments. Overall, this work describes a level of complexity in organic aerosol much greater than previously indicated. We suspect that any one analytical technique is likely to miss certain aspects of this mixture, and that a variety of analytical methods must be employed to fully characterize and resolve the complex mixture in atmospheric organic aerosol.
Atmospheric aerosol affects the Earth's energy budget, reduces visibility and influences human health. The organic composition of aerosol is quite complex and continuously evolves through various atmospheric processes. To gain a deeper understanding of the molecular composition of atmospheric organic matter (AOM), chamber-generated biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA), ambient aerosol and cloud water samples were studied. Ultrahigh resolution Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry was used to provide detailed molecular characterization of the atmospheric samples. Due to the extremely high mass resolution and mass accuracy, thousands of individual molecular formulas were identified in all of the samples studied. Multivariate statistical analysis methods were evaluated to compare the similarities and differences of the sample compositions. The biogenic SOA from three individual monoterpene precursors and a sesquiterpene precursor have clusters of peaks in their mass spectra, indicating that high molecular weight oligomers are a major component of the SOA. The monoterpene SOA have similar molecular compositions, which are different from the sesquiterpene SOA composition. The indicator species of SOA were identified using multivariate statistical analysis. Daily 24-hour water-soluble organic carbon samples from ambient aerosol collected at the Storm Peak Laboratory (SPL) show similar bulk chemical properties regarding their average elemental ratios and double bond equivalents. Using multivariate statistical analysis, the site meteorological conditions were found to affect the aerosol molecular composition. Days with strong UV radiation and high temperature were found to contain large numbers of biogenic SOA molecular formulas. Days with high relative humidity and high sulfate ion concentrations were found to contain many sulfur-containing compounds, suggesting their aqueous phase formation. The collection of cloud samples at the SPL provided an opportunity to study aqueous processing of AOM. The cloud composition was affected by biomass burning and SOA. Comparisons of the sample compositions indicate biogenic SOA components are commonly observed in ambient aerosol and cloud samples collected at the SPL. Thus, the ambient samples were used to confirm the biogenic SOA indicator species identified in chamber-generated SOA. This study of the three types of atmospheric samples helps to understand the composition of AOM with respect to atmospheric processes.
Abstract : Organic aerosol affects human health and climate. These effects are largely determined by the composition of the organic aerosol, which is a complex mixture of species. Understanding the complexity of organic aerosol is critical to determining its effect on human health and climate. In this study, long range transported organic aerosol collected at the Pico Mountain Observatory was analyzed using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry. Organic aerosol transported in the free troposphere had an overall lower extent of oxidation than aerosol transported in the boundary layer. It was hypothesized that the lower oxidation was related to a more viscous phase state of the aerosol during transport. The results suggest that biomass burning organic aerosol injected into the free troposphere are more persistent than organic aerosol in the boundary layer. A sample was also analyzed using tandem FT-ICR MS/MS fragmentation, providing information about the functional group composition in the aerosol sample. This was done using a segmented scan approach, which revealed an unprecedented molecular complexity of unfragmented precursor ions. In addition to the expected CO2 and H2O neutral losses, neutral losses corresponding to carbonyl functional groups (C2H4O, CO) were observed. The abundance of carbonyl functional groups suggests a slower rate of aging in the atmosphere. Analysis of nitrogen and sulfur containing neutral losses highlighted a surprising abundance of reduced nitrogen and sulfur loss (NH3 and SH2). This further supports the hypothesis of slower aging in the free troposphere. Additional research was done to develop an R software package (MFAssignR) to perform molecular formula assignment with improved decision-making transparency, noise estimation, isotope identification, and mass recalibration. MFAssignR was found to assign the same molecular formula as other molecular formula assignment methods for the majority (97-99%) of mass peaks that were assigned a molecular formula by the compared methods. Additionally, MFAssignR was more effective at assigning molecular formulas to low intensity peaks relative to the other methods tested, leading to more overall molecular formula assignments. MFAssignR is available via GitHub and is the first open source package to contain a full pipeline of functions for data preparation and analysis for ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry.
Abstract : The natural environment is replete with organic matter of varying complexities. Whether it is particulate material in the atmosphere, decades old organic matter trapped within glaciers, or biological debris flowing with rivers and streams, natural organic matter (NOM) is exquisitely complex. High-resolution mass spectrometry allows us to have a glimpse of the molecular composition of NOM and delineate the elemental compositions of thousands of chemical species that form it. In this dissertation, the overarching aim was to explore the molecular diversity of complex mixtures from two sources: Surface water and atmospheric organic aerosol. The first objective of this dissertation was to demonstrate ionization selectivity of three popular ionization methods so that the necessity of using more than one technique for untargeted qualitative analysis of complex mixtures could be validated. Electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI), and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) were tested on commercial humic substances in combination with the Fourier Transform - Orbitrap Elite Mass Spectrometer. Our findings provide evidence for the tendency of ESI to access polar, more oxygenated compounds that constitute a majority of humic substances. A minor fraction comprising relatively less polar, aromatic compounds, could be accessed with either APPI or APCI, highlighting the importance of employing complementary ionization methods to obtain representative molecular compositions of complex mixtures. The second objective of this dissertation was to demonstrate the extreme molecular complexity of organic aerosol collected downwind of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The focus was particularly on the fraction of organic aerosol that had aged to develop an abundance of tar balls (TB) that are carbonaceous spherules of extremely variable optical properties and whose detailed molecular composition is yet to be elucidated. We attempted to find a preliminary TB-specific molecular signature by comparing several TB-rich and non-TB aerosol mixtures. Using Fourier Transform - Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometers and complementary ionization techniques, ESI and laser desorption ionization, we present detailed molecular composition of TB, which indicates them to be a mixture of low-oxygen organic constituents enclosed in a more oxidatively aged shell.
Atmospheric aerosols can affect visibility and the Earth's climate by scattering and absorbing light and they also can have adverse effects on human health. The organic portion of atmospheric aerosols is very complex and is a major fraction of fine particulate matter. High molecular weight (high-MW)/oligomeric organic compounds can make up a large part of this organic fraction and the composition, sources, and formation mechanisms for these compounds are not well understood. This knowledge and understanding is necessary to decrease the uncertainty in the climate affects of aerosols and to improve climate models. This dissertation investigates the composition and formation mechanisms for the high-MW/oligomeric fraction of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) collected in Bakersfield, CA and presents a comparative analysis of chamber and ambient SOA, from both Los Angeles (LA) and Bakersfield, to investigate sources at both locations. A novel sampling technique, nanospray-Desorption Electrospray Ionization (nano-DESI), was used with high resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS) to determine the molecular formulas of the high molecular weight (HMW)/oligomeric fraction of SOA. Nano-DESI involves direct desorption from the sample surface and was used to limit reactions that can take place with extraction and storage in solvent. The samples were collected in Bakersfield and LA during CalNex 2010. Both Bakersfield and LA are out of compliance with EPA standards of ozone and particulate matter and provide opportunities to examine air masses affected by both anthropogenic and biogenic sources. This dissertation has provided the first evidence of observable changes in the composition of high-MW/oligomeric compounds throughout the day. Using positive mode nano-DESI, afternoon increases in the number of compounds that contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (CHO) were observed consistent with photochemistry/ozonolysis as a major source for these compounds. Compounds containing reduced nitrogen groups were dominant at night and had precursors consistent with imine formation products from the reaction of carbonyls and ammonia. In the negative mode, organonitrates (CHON) and nitroxy organosulfates (CHONS) had larger numbers of compounds in the night/morning samples consistent with nitrate radical formation reactions. A subset of the CHONS compounds and compounds containing sulfur (CHOS) had the same composition as known biogenic organosulfates and nitroxy organosulfates indicating contributions from both biogenic and anthropogenic sources to the SOA. This dissertation also provides the first analysis of the high-MW/oligomeric fraction in size resolved samples; the majority of the compounds were found in aerosol diameters between 0.18-1.0 micrometers and the CHON were bimodal with size. Finally, this dissertation presents the first comparative analysis of the overlap in the composition of this fraction of SOA between ambient and chamber samples. Samples collected in Pasadena, LA and Bakersfield were compared with samples collected in a smog chamber using diesel and isoprene sources. The results indicate that diesel had the highest overlap at both sites, Bakersfield samples were more oxidized, and LA showed evidence of a SOA plume arriving from downtown LA. The addition of ammonia to the diesel chamber experiment was necessary to form many of the 2N compounds found in Bakersfield. These results increase our understanding of the types of compounds found in urban environments and give evidence for the timescales of formation reactions in an ambient environment. They show that the majority of the high-MW oligomeric compounds are found in submicron size particles and that the composition of this fraction of SOA varies with aerosol size. Results from the chamber comparisons show that both diesel and isoprene are important sources for these compounds and also that there other sources are present. Future work that combines this type of analysis, in other ambient environments, with studies of the optical properties of aerosols could be used to help improve climate models and to start to close the gap in our understanding of the climate effects of atmospheric aerosols.
Organic aerosol (OA) is an important component of the earth’s climate system, making up a substantial fraction of the fine aerosol mass in the atmosphere. However, the atmospheric evolution of OA after emission remains poorly characterized. A better understanding of its life cycle is critical for environmental issues ranging from air quality to climate change. In this dissertation, real-time measurements of submicron aerosols were made using a High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometers (AMS) during two DOE field campaigns to obtain a detailed understanding of the chemical and physical properties, sources and atmospheric processes of OA under various emission regimes. The first field study took place at a rural forest site on Long Island, NY, as part of the Aerosol Life Cycle Intensive Operation Period at Brookhaven National Lab (ALC-IOP at BNL). OA was found to dominate the submicron aerosol mass at BNL and was overwhelmingly secondary. Urban emissions transported from the New York metropolitan area led to elevated OA mass concentration and altered OA composition and physical-chemical properties at this rural site. Results suggest that mixed anthropogenic emissions and biogenic emission led to enhance secondary OA (SOA) production. The second field study took place at a high-altitude regional background site, Mt. Bachelor Observatory (MBO; ~ 2763 m a.s.l), in the western US as part of the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP). Regional and free tropospheric (FT) aerosols under clean conditions were characterized. Significant compositional and physical differences between FT and boundary layer (BL) OA were observed. Free tropospheric OA was highly oxidized with low volatility, whereas OA associated with BL air masses was less oxidized and appeared to be semivolatile. For periods influenced by transported wildfires plumes during the study period, aerosol concentration at MBO increased substantially and was overwhelmingly organic. Three types of BB organic aerosol (BBOA) were identified and appeared to have been subjected to different degrees of atmospheric processing. A case study using consecutive BB plumes transported from the same fire source showed that photochemical aging led to more oxidized OA with higher mass fractions of aged BBOA and a lower fraction of fresh BBOA. Although BBOA in daytime plumes were chemically more processed than nighttime plumes, the enhancement ratios of OA relative to CO were very similar. Based on observations both at MBO and near fire sources using the DOE G-1 aircraft, BBOA concentrations and chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes at the source. However, OA emissions were consistent between fresher emissions and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport. In addition, tighter correlations were observed between OA oxidation degree and plume age. These results suggest that aging leads to substantial chemical transformed and more oxidized BBOA in this study, yet BBOA concentration was conserved to a significant extent during regional transport, for which a possible reason is that SOA formation was almost entirely balanced by BBOA volatilization.
Aerosol particles are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and induce significant impacts on human health and climate that depend on their physical and chemical properties, such as size, composition, and mixing state (chemical associations). Measurements of aerosol composition at the single-particle level are necessary to better understand these effects. Aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS) is able to monitor the size and chemical composition of individual particles in real time. In this doctoral research, ATOFMS analysis was extended to identify new mass spectral markers and improve the potential for quantitative measurements. Development of novel instrumentation was also undertaken. Ion markers indicative of organosulfate compounds were identified in ATOFMS mass spectra collected in Atlanta, GA. In this study, the mixing state and temporal behavior of particulate organosulfate compounds were observed for the first time. Organosulfates were overwhelmingly detected in carbonaceous submicron particles and the temporal trends indicated that they likely formed by the daytime oxidation of isoprene followed by aqueous reaction with sulfate overnight. These results highlight the roles of mixing state and multi-phase reactivity on the formation of secondary organic aerosols. ATOFMS measurements of thermally-conditioned aerosol residuals obtained during the 2005 Study of Organic Aerosols in Riverside, CA were analyzed to determine the impacts of atmospheric aging on the laser desorption/ionization process. Coatings of secondary species suppressed the ionization efficiency, thereby impacting the mass spectral peak areas; however, a novel analysis method was found to correct these artifacts and produced strong agreement with collocated quantitative instrumentation. This new analysis technique was then applied to investigate the mixing-state dependence of aerosol volatility observed in Riverside. It was observed that particulate nitrate evaporated at different temperatures from different particle types (e.g., organic vs. biomass burning), which may influence the regional transport of nitrate species. ATOFMS provides important insights into size-resolved particle sources; however it heavily fragments most organic species, resulting in loss of the molecular information. Therefore, a novel chemical ionization mass spectrometer was developed to better characterize the molecular organic aerosol constituents. In particular, an ion funnel was incorporated into a home-built proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer. Initial characterization studies and ion simulations indicated that the ion funnel can provide high-efficiency ion transfer from the ionization region to the mass spectrometer. These results demonstrate the potential for this instrument to ultimately achieve highly sensitive analyses of organic aerosols.
Particles in the atmosphere are known to have negative health effects and important but highly uncertain impacts on global and regional climate. A majority of this particulate matter is formed through atmospheric oxidation of naturally and anthropogenically emitted gases to yield highly oxygenated secondary organic aerosol (SOA), an amalgamation of thousands of individual chemical compounds. However, comprehensive analysis of SOA composition has been stymied by its complexity and lack of available measurement techniques. In this work, novel instrumentation, analysis methods, and conceptual frameworks are introduced for chemically characterizing atmospherically relevant mixtures and ambient aerosols, providing a fundamentally new level of detailed knowledge on their structures, chemical properties, and identification of their components. This chemical information is used to gain insights into the formation, transformation and oxidation of organic aerosols. Biogenic and anthropogenic mixtures are observed in this work to yield incredible complexity upon oxidation, producing over 100 separable compounds from a single precursor. As a first step toward unraveling this complexity, a method was developed for measuring the polarity and volatility of individual compounds in a complex mixture using two-dimensional gas chromatography, which is demonstrated in Chapter 2 for describing the oxidation of SOA formed from a biogenic compound (longifolene: C15H24). Several major products and tens of substantial minor products were produced, but none could be identified by traditional methods or have ever been isolated and studied in the laboratory. A major realization of this work was that soft ionization mass spectrometry could be used to identify the molecular mass and formula of these unidentified compounds, a major step toward a comprehensive description of complex mixtures. This was achieved by coupling gas chromatography to high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photo-ionization. Chapters 3 and 4 describe this new analytical technique and its initial application to determine the structures of unknown compounds and formerly unresolvable mixtures, including a complete description of the chemical composition of two common petroleum products related to anthropogenic emissions: diesel fuel and motor oil. The distribution of hydrocarbon isomers in these mixtures - found to be mostly of branched, cyclic, and saturated - is described with unprecedented detail. Instead of measuring average bulk aerosol properties, the methods developed and applied in this work directly measure the polarity, volatility, and structure of individual components to allow a mechanistic understanding of oxidation processes. Novel characterizations of these complex mixtures are used to elucidate the role of structure and functionality in particle-phase oxidation, including in Chapter 4 the first measurements of relative reaction rates in a complex hydrocarbon particle. Molecular structure is observed to influence particle-phase oxidation in unexpected and important ways, with cyclization decreasing reaction rates by ~30% and branching increasing reaction rates by ~20-50%. The observed structural dependence is proposed to result in compositional changes in anthropogenic organic aerosol downwind of urban areas, which has been confirmed in subsequent work by applying the techniques described here. Measurement of organic aerosol components is extended to ambient environments through the development of instrumentation with the unprecedented capability to measure hourly concentrations and gas/particle partitioning of individual highly oxygenated organic compounds in the atmosphere. Chapters 5 and 6 describe development of new procedures and hardware for the calibration and analysis of oxygenates using the Semi-Volatile Thermal desorption Aerosol Gas chromatograph (SV-TAG), a custom instrument for in situ quantification of gas- and particle-phase organic compounds in the atmosphere. High time resolution measurement of oxygenated compounds is achieved through a reproducible and quantitative methodology for in situ "derivatization"--Replacing highly polar functional groups that cannot be analyzed by traditional gas chromatography with less polar groups. Implementation of a two-channel sampling system for the simultaneous collection of particle-phase and total gas-plus-particle phase samples allows for the first direct measurements of gas/particle partitioning in the atmosphere, significantly advancing the study of atmospheric composition and variability, as well as the processes governing condensation and re-volatilization. This work presents the first in situ measurements of a large suite of highly oxygenated biogenic oxidation products in both the gas- and particle-phase. Isoprene, the most ubiquitous biogenic emission, oxidizes to form 2-methyltetrols and C5 alkene triols, while [alpha]-pinene, the most common monoterpene, forms pinic, pinonic, hydroxyglutaric, and other acids. These compounds are reported in Chapter 7 with unprecedented time resolution and are shown for the first time to have a large gas-phase component, contrary to typical assumptions. Hourly comparisons of these products with anthropogenic aerosol components elucidate the interaction of human and natural emissions at two rural sites: the southeastern, U.S. and Amazonia, Brazil. Anthropogenic influence on SOA formation is proposed to occur through the increase in liquid water caused by anthropogenic sulfate. Furthermore, these unparalleled observations of gas/particle partitioning of biogenic oxidation products demonstrate that partitioning of oxygenates is unexpectedly independent of volatility: many volatile, highly oxygenated compounds have a large particle-phase component that is poorly described by traditional models. These novel conclusions are reached in part by applying the new frameworks developed in previous chapters to understand the properties of unidentified compounds, demonstrating the importance of detailed characterization of atmospheric organic mixtures. Comprehensive analysis of anthropogenic and biogenic emissions and oxidation product mixtures is coupled in this work with high time-resolution measurement of individual organic components to yield significant insights into the transformations of organic aerosols. Oxidation chemistry is observed in both laboratory and field settings to depend on molecular properties, volatility, and atmospheric composition. However, this work demonstrates that these complex processes can be understood through the quantification of individual known and unidentified compounds, combined with their classification into descriptive frameworks.
