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Role of Organic Acids in Atmospheric Aerosols
Alena Kubátová

The contribution of organic aerosols to global changes has been recognized, but the extent of their impact has proven difficult to estimate because only a fraction of organic aerosol species has been fully identified and quantified. The missing species are expected to include and polar/reactive organic compounds (e.g., organic acids, aldehydes). Although some of these species have been identified in laboratory and ambient samples, analytical methods for their quantitative determination especially in aerosols are not fully developed, limiting their application to atmospheric samples. Without reliable experimental data for validation, atmospheric models are unable to describe impact of these species on the atmospheric radiation balance.

Thus the objective of this project is to adopt/develop method for the determination of small organic acids in aerosols and to apply this method to the samples which will be collected during the 2010 Department's of Energy (DOE) Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) field campaign performed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Thus providing essential scientific data necessary for the determination of role of these species in climate changes.

The method development will be performed using the modern analytical instrumentation including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipped with thermal desorption-pyrolysis online with (TD-Pyr-GC-MS), and using solid phase microextraction (SPME). Liquid chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry will be evaluated for this purpose as well.