Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new method to analyze particulate matter more precisely than ever before. With its help, they disproved an established doctrine: that molecules in aerosols undergo no further chemical transformations because they are enclosed in other suspended particulate matter. An open-access paper on their work is published in Science Advances.
In the smog chamber at PSI, they analyzed chemical compounds directly in aerosols and observed how molecules dissociated and thus released, for example, gaseous formic acid into the atmosphere. These findings will help to improve the understanding of global processes involved in cloud formation and air pollution and to refine the corresponding models. The results of this investigation are published in the journal Science Advances .
André Prévôt (right) und Urs Baltensperger at the newly developed device that analyzes molecules in particulate matter. (Photo: Paul Scherrer Institute / Mahir Dzambegovic)
Anyone who takes a walk through a coniferous forest and enjoys the tangy, refreshing air is inhaling α-pinene. This is one of the volatile organic compounds in the oils of conifer trees, and it also occurs in eucalyptus and rosemary. The smell triggers pleasant feelings in most people. Less pleasant is that the compound changes in the atmosphere, under the influence of radicals, into other compounds — highly oxidized organic molecules.
Some of these are reactive, to some extent harmful substances. They have only recently come under scrutiny by atmospheric researchers, and their role, for example in cloud formation, is not yet understood.
These highly oxidized organic molecules are less volatile than the starting substance α-pinene and therefore condense easily. Together with dust particles and other solid and liquid substances in the air, they form particulate matter or aerosols.
Up to now it was thought that such molecules are protected from further transformations once they have landed in particulate matter. It was believed that they then would not change any more, but would simply spread out over the atmosphere and eventually rain down.
– Andre Prévôt of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry at PSI
This widespread opinion does not correspond to reality, however, as Prévôt and his fellow researchers at PSI showed.
The reactions continue, even in the particulate matter. The molecules remain reactive and either react with each other to form larger particles or disassociate, thus releasing for example formic acid. This common compound is found not only in ants and stinging nettles, but also in the atmosphere, where it is an important indicator of air pollution.
The PSI researchers ’observations should help to improve simulation models, such as those for cloud formation and air pollution. The models simulate what happens in the atmosphere to predict, for example, how a reduction in certain emissions will affect air quality.
For the first time, PSI researchers analyzed chemical compounds directly in particulate matter under atmospheric conditions. For this they used the PSI smog chamber, in which processes in the atmosphere can be simulated. The researchers injected a droplet of α-pinene into the chamber and caused the compound to react with ozone. Over a period of 19 hours, they viewed which chemical compounds formed from α-pinene and which disappeared again afterwards.
This was made possible by a new analytic device for atmospheric measurements that the researchers developed in cooperation with the company Tofwerk in Thun, Switzerland: a EESI-TOF (extractive electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer).
It also detects larger molecules directly in the aerosol. Previous measurement methods, on the other hand, chop up the molecules into smaller fragments at high temperatures.
– atmospheric chemist Urs Baltensperger
Tofwerk has now brought the device to market with the help of PSI, so that other atmospheric researchers can also benefit from the new method.
The new analytic method can be used not only in the laboratory, but also directly on site. During the winter of 8341 / 19 and the summer of 8341, PSI Researchers used it to investigate aerosols in the air in Zurich.
As it turned out, a good third of Zurich’s particulate matter in summer consists solely of reaction products of α-pinene and similar molecules. In winter, however, emissions from wood-burning systems and their reaction products come to the fore.
The researchers have planned further measurement campaigns in China and India. There they want to analyze which molecules form in the air of a city with more than a million inhabitants.
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