scholarly journals Measurement of sulfuric acid aerosol and total sulfate content of ambient air

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray F. Maddalone ◽  
Ronnie L. Thomas ◽  
Philip W. West
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Sulfate Content ◽  
Total Sulfate

Exchange of comments: Measurement of sulfuric acid aerosol, sulfur trioxide, and the total sulfate content of the ambient air

1976 ◽  
Vol 48 (14) ◽  
pp. 2269-2270
Author(s):  
Philip W. West ◽  
Gary L. Lundquist ◽  
Ronnie L. Thomas ◽  
V. Dharmarajan
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Sulfur Trioxide ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Sulfate Content ◽  
Total Sulfate

Measurement of sulfuric acid aerosol, sulfur trioxide, and the total sulfate content of the ambient air

1976 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronnie L. Thomas ◽  
V. Dharmarajan ◽  
G. L. Lundquist ◽  
Philip W. West
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Sulfur Trioxide ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Sulfate Content ◽  
Total Sulfate

A continuous sulfuric acid and sulfate monitor for ambient air

1987 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 857-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Böhm ◽  
G.W. Israël
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Ambient Air

Composition and concentrations of aerosol precursor gases in the sub-Arctic boreal forest

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuija Jokinen ◽  
Katrianne Lehtipalo ◽  
Kimmo Neitola ◽  
Nina Sarnela ◽  
Totti Laitinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Particle Formation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
New Particle Formation ◽  
Aerosol Formation ◽  
Iodic Acid ◽  
Field Station

<p>One way to form aerosol particles is the condensation of oxidized atmospheric trace gases, such as sulfuric acid (SA) into small molecular clusters. After growing to larger particles by condensation of low volatile gases, they can affect the planets climate directly by scattering light and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. Observations of low-volatility aerosol precursor gases have been reported around the world but long-term measurement series and Arctic data sets showing seasonal variation are close to non-existent. In here, we present ~7 months of aerosol precursor gas measurements performed with the nitrate based chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CI-APi-TOF). We deployed our measurements ~250 km above the Arctic Circle at the Finnish sub-Arctic field station, SMEAR I in Värriö. We report concentration measurements of the most common new particle formation related compounds; sulfuric acid, methanesulfonic acid (MSA), iodic acid (IA) and highly oxygenated organic compounds, HOMs. At this remote measurement site, surrounded by a strict nature preserve, that gets occasional pollution from a Russian city of Murmansk, SA is originated both from anthropogenic and biological sources and has a clear diurnal cycle but no significant seasonal variation, while MSA as an oxidation product of purely biogenic sources is showing a more distinct seasonal cycle. Iodic acid concentrations are the most stable throughout the measurement period, showing almost identical peak concentrations for spring, summer and autumn. HOMs are abundant during the summer months and due to their high correlation with ambient air temperature, we suggest that most of HOMs are products of monoterpene oxidation. New particle formation events at SMEAR I happen under relatively low temperatures, low relative humidity, high ozone concentration, high SA concentration in the morning and high MSA concentrations in the afternoon. The role of HOMs in aerosol formation will be discussed. All together, these are the first long term measurements of aerosol forming precursor from the sub-arctic region helping us to understand atmospheric chemical processes and aerosol formation in the rapidly changing Arctic.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Evaluation of techniques for sulfuric acid and particulate strong acidity measurements in ambient air

1980 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 559-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.R. Appel ◽  
S.M. Wall ◽  
M. Haik ◽  
E.L. Kothny ◽  
Y. Tokiwa
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Strong Acidity

scholarly journals Total sulfate vs. sulfuric acid monomer concenterations in nucleation studies

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 3429-3443 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Neitola ◽  
D. Brus ◽  
U. Makkonen ◽  
M. Sipilä ◽  
R. L. Mauldin III ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Sulfuric Acid Concentration ◽  
Monomer Concentration ◽  
Particle Growth ◽  
Production Method ◽  
Previous Method ◽  
Acid Vapor ◽  
Sulfuric Acid Production ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Total Sulfate

Abstract. Sulfuric acid is known to be a key component for atmospheric nucleation. Precise determination of sulfuric-acid concentration is a crucial factor for prediction of nucleation rates and subsequent growth. In our study, we have noticed a substantial discrepancy between sulfuric-acid monomer concentrations and total-sulfate concentrations measured from the same source of sulfuric-acid vapor. The discrepancy of about 1–2 orders of magnitude was found with similar particle-formation rates. To investigate this discrepancy, and its effect on nucleation, a method of thermally controlled saturator filled with pure sulfuric acid (97% wt.) for production of sulfuric-acid vapor is applied and rigorously tested. The saturator provided an independent vapor-production method, compared to our previous method of the furnace (Brus et al., 2010, 2011), to find out if the discrepancy is caused by the production method itself. The saturator was used in a H2SO4–H2O nucleation experiment, using a laminar flow tube to check reproducibility of the nucleation results with the saturator method, compared to the furnace. Two independent methods of mass spectrometry and online ion chromatography were used for detecting sulfuric-acid or sulfate concentrations. Measured sulfuric-acid or total-sulfate concentrations are compared to theoretical predictions calculated using vapor pressure and a mixing law. The calculated prediction of sulfuric-acid concentrations agrees very well with the measured values when total sulfate is considered. Sulfuric-acid monomer concentration was found to be about 2 orders of magnitude lower than theoretical predictions, but with a temperature dependency similar to the predictions and the results obtained with the ion-chromatograph method. Formation rates are reproducible when compared to our previous results with both sulfuric-acid or total-sulfate detection and sulfuric-acid production methods separately, removing any doubts that the vapor-production method would cause the discrepancy. Possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed and some suggestions include that the missing sulfuric acid is in clusters, formed with contaminants found in most laboratory experiments. One-to-two-order-of-magnitude higher sulfuric-acid concentrations (measured as total sulfate in this study) would contribute to a higher fraction of particle growth rate than assumed from the measurements by mass spectrometers (i.e. sulfuric-acid monomer). However, the observed growth rates by sulfate-containing vapor in this study does not directly imply a similar situation in the field, where sources of sulfate are much more diverse.

scholarly journals Non-target and suspect characterisation of organic contaminants in ambient air – Part 1: Combining a novel sample clean-up method with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 1697-1716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Röhler ◽  
Pernilla Bohlin-Nizzetto ◽  
Pawel Rostkowski ◽  
Roland Kallenborn ◽  
Martin Schlabach
Keyword(s):  
Gas Chromatography ◽  
Sulfuric Acid ◽  
Organic Contaminants ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Particle Phase ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Air Samples ◽  
Concentrated Sulfuric Acid

Abstract. Long-term monitoring of regulated organic chemicals, such as legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in ambient air provides valuable information about the compounds' environmental fate as well as temporal and spatial trends. This is the foundation to evaluate the effectiveness of national and international regulations for priority pollutants. Extracts of high-volume air samples, collected on glass fibre filters (GFF for particle phase) and polyurethane foam plugs (PUF for gaseous phase), for targeted analyses of legacy POPs are commonly cleaned by treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid, resulting in extracts clean from most interfering compounds and matrices that are suitable for multi-quantitative trace analysis. Such standardised methods, however, severely restrict the number of analytes for quantification and are not applicable when targeting new and emerging compounds as some may be less stable under acid treatment. Recently developed suspect and non-target screening analytical strategies (SUS and NTS, respectively) are shown to be effective evaluation tools aimed at identifying a high number of compounds of emerging concern. These strategies, combining highly sophisticated analytical technology with extensive data interpretation and statistics, are already widely accepted in environmental sciences for investigations of various environmental matrices, but their application to air samples is still very limited. In order to apply SUS and NTS for the identification of organic contaminants in air samples, an adapted and more wide-scope sample clean-up method is needed compared to the traditional method, which uses concentrated sulfuric acid. Analysis of raw air sample extracts without clean-up would generate extensive contamination of the analytical system, especially with PUF matrix-based compounds, and thus highly interfered mass spectra and detection limits which are unacceptable high for trace analysis in air samples. In this study, a novel wide-scope sample clean-up method for high-volume air samples has been developed and applied to real high-volume air samples, which facilitates simultaneous target, suspect and non-target analyses. The scope and efficiency of the method were quantitatively evaluated with organic compounds covering a wide range of polarities (logP 2–11), including legacy POPs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated pesticides and currently used pesticides (CUPs). In addition, data reduction and selection strategies for SUS and NTS were developed for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography separation with low-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometric detection (GC × GC-LRMS) data and applied to real high-volume air samples. Combination of the newly developed clean-up procedure and data treatment strategy enabled the prioritisation of over 600 compounds of interest in the particle phase (on GFF) and over 850 compounds in the gas phase (on PUF) out of over 25 000 chemical features detected in the raw dataset. Of these, 50 individual compounds were identified and confirmed with reference standards, 80 compounds were identified with a probable structure, and 774 compounds were assigned to various compound classes. In the dataset available here, 11 hitherto unknown halogenated compounds were detected. These unknown compounds were not yet listed in the available mass spectral libraries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document