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Selected Works of Lynn Mazzoleni
Presentation
High resolution mass spectrometry of organic nitrogen species in atmospheric fog and cloud waters
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007 (2007)
  • L. Mazzoleni, Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Y. Sun, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • J. Collett, Colorado State University
  • C. Anastasio, University of California at Davis
  • U. Rowchowdhury, University at Albany, State University of New York
  • Q. Zhang, University at Albany, State University of New York
Abstract
Past studies have shown that organic nitrogen (ON) species are ubiquitous in atmospheric particles and water droplets and they are significant components of both wet and dry depositions. However, very little is known about the characteristics of this class of compounds and the roles that they play in atmospheric chemistry. To fill in this gap, we have developed a method that allows us to bulk-characterize and quantify organic nitrogen species in atmospheric aqueous phases using an Aerodyne High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). We evaluated this method by analyzing a suite of ON compounds including amino acids, amines, proteins, amides, and nitriles. The mass spectra of these compounds show similar structures to those in the NIST database, though with more fragmentation due to the higher vaporization/ionization temperature (~ 600 oC). The elemental compositions determined from the high resolution mass spectra agree well with the theoretical values. With this method, we analyzed a number of fog waters collected from the Central Valley of California and cloud waters from the Whiteface Mountain of New York. A large fraction of water soluble materials in both fog and cloud waters was identified to be organic, of which a significant portion contains nitrogen. On average, ON accounts for ~ 20% and 5%, respectively, of the total nitrogen (= NH4+ + NO3- + NO2- + ON) in the Central Valley fog and Whiteface Mountain cloud waters. Water soluble organic matter (WSOM) in the Central Valley fog and Whiteface Mountain cloud waters show highly oxygenated properties with mass spectra resemble those of highly aged organic aerosols sampled in rural areas and humic/fulvic acids. Finally, we will attempt to extend pertinent data analysis techniques to in-situ AMS data for ON characterization in ambient aerosols.
Disciplines
Publication Date
December, 2007
Location
San Francisco, CA
Comments
Citation Information
L. Mazzoleni, Y. Sun, J. Collett, C. Anastasio, et al.. "High resolution mass spectrometry of organic nitrogen species in atmospheric fog and cloud waters" American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007 (2007)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/l-mazzoleni/10/