References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-10-10111-2010

Analysis of the chemical composition of organic aerosol at the Mt. Sonnblick observatory using a novel high mass resolution thermal-desorption proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometer (hr-TD-PTR-MS)

Holzinger

¹ Kasper-Giebl

² Staudinger

³ Schauer

³ Röckmann

Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Vienna Univ. Technol., Inst. Chem. Technol. a. Analytics, Vienna, Austria

Cent. Inst. Meteorol. & Geodynam., Vienna, Austria

27 10 2010

10 20 10111 10128

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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For the first time a high mass resolution thermal desorption proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (hr-TD-PTR-MS) was deployed in the field to analyze the composition of the organic fraction of aerosols. We report on measurements from the remote Mt. Sonnblick observatory in the Austrian alps (3108 m a.s.l.) during a 7 week period in summer 2009. A total of 638 mass peaks in the range 18–392 Da were detected and quantified in aerosols. An empirical formula was tentatively attributed to 464 of these compounds by custom-made data analysis routines which consider compounds containing C, H, O, N, and S atoms. Most of the other (unidentified) compounds must contain other elements – most likely halogenated compounds. The mean total concentration of all detected compounds was 1.1 μg m<sup>−3</sup>. Oxygenated hydrocarbons constitute the bulk of the aerosol mass (75%) followed by organic nitrogen compounds (9%), inorganic compounds (mostly NH<sub>3</sub>, 8%), unidentified/halogenated (3.8%), hydrocarbons (2.7%), and organic sulfur compounds (0.8%). The measured O/C ratios are lower than expected and suggest a significant effect from charring. Organic carbon concentrations measured with TD-PTR-MS were about 25% lower than measurements on high volume filter samples.

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