Determination of organic acids in aerosol particles from a coniferous forest by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

✍ Scribed by Piia Anttila; Tuulia Hyötyläinen; Anu Heikkilä; Matti Jussila; Johan Finell; Markku Kulmala; Marja-Liisa Riekkola

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1012 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1615-9306
• DOI: 10.1002/jssc.200401931

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

LC–MS methods with use of ion‐trap and time‐of‐flight mass spectrometers were developed for the determination of organic acids in aerosol samples collected by a high‐volume sampler in a Finnish coniferous forest. Comparison was made of the composition of samples collected during atmospheric formation of new aerosol particles and on days when this formation did not occur. A dynamic sonication‐assisted solvent extraction system was developed for fast and quantitative extraction of the filter samples. Several organic acids, including pinonic acid, pinic acid, and homologuous series of n‐alkanoic acids, n‐alkenoic acids, and aliphatic dicarboxylic acids, were identified. In samples collected between 08:00 and 16:00 hours the concentration of pinonic acid ranged from 0.5 ng m^–3^ to 3.7 ng m^–3^ and that of pinic acid from 0.2 ng m^–3^ to 1.5 ng m^–3^. For most of the compounds identified, the trends in concentration could be explained by the differences in temperature during collection. However, concentrations of short‐chain n‐alkanoic acids were clearly higher on the days when new aerosol particle formation occurred.