Franziska Bachmeier
Investigation of molecular fingerprints of SOA oxidation products
The effects of atmospheric aerosol particles on the Earth’s radiative balance are a major source of uncertainty in global climate models. A distinction between and quantification of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric aerosol concentration and their sources has to be made to reduce this uncertainty. Therefore, it is necessary to backtrack secondary organic aerosols (SOA ) oxidation products to their precursors.
To get an insight into oxidations products of volatile organic compounds, we perform experiments with an oxidation flow reactor (OFR), the Potential Aerosol Mass Chamber by Aerodyne. Inside this OFR a highly oxidizing environment is created and atmospheric oxidation processes can be simulated. Different biogenic and anthropogenic precursors are oxidized inside the chamber under different conditions. The secondary organic aerosols formed in this process are sampled on borosilicate glass microfibers filters. After filter sampling the compounds are extracted and measured by ultra-high-performance-liquid-chromatography coupled with high-resolution-mass-spectrometry, subsequently analyzed with a non-target-analysis.
We want to establish a database for atmospheric oxidation products. Features detected in environmental samples are supposed to be traced back to their precursors and to enable a source identification.