scholarly journals Molecular Distributions of Soluble Oxidation Products from Coals Characterized by Mass Spectrometers

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Xing Fan ◽  
Fei Wang

Oxidation of three coals with rank from lignite to anthracite in NaOCl aqueous solution was investigated in this study. The oxidation products were characterized by using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometry. The results showed that most of organic compounds in coals were converted into water-soluble species under mild conditions, even the anthracite. Benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCAs) and chloro-substituted alkanoic acids (CSAAs) were major products from the reactions. The products from lower rank coals consist of considerable CSAAs and most products from high rank coals are BPCAs. As coal rank increases, the yield of BPCAs with more carboxylic groups increases.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E. Krechmer ◽  
Michael Groessl ◽  
Xuan Zhang ◽  
Heikki Junninen ◽  
Paola Massoli ◽  
...  

Abstract. Measurement techniques that provide molecular-level information are needed to elucidate the multi-phase processes that produce secondary organic aerosol (SOA) species in the atmosphere. Here we demonstrate the application of ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) to the simultaneous characterization of the elemental composition and molecular structures of organic species in the gas and particulate phases. Molecular ions of gas-phase organic species are measured online with IMS-MS after ionization with a custom build nitrate chemical ionization (CI) source. This CI-IMS-MS technique is used to obtain time-resolved measurements (5 min) of highly oxidized organic molecules during the 2013 Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) ambient field campaign in the forested SE US. The ambient IMS-MS signals are consistent with laboratory IMS-MS spectra obtained from single-component carboxylic acids and multicomponent mixtures of isoprene and monoterpene oxidation products. Mass-mobility correlations in the 2-dimensional IMS-MS space provide a means of identifying ions with similar molecular structures within complex mass spectra and are used to separate and identify monoterpene oxidation products in the ambient data that are produced from different chemical pathways. Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) constituents of fine aerosol particles that are not resolvable with standard analytical separation methods, such as liquid chromatography (LC), are shown to be separable with IMS-MS coupled to an electrospray ionization (ESI) source. The capability to use ion mobility to differentiate between isomers is demonstrated for organosulfates derived from the reactive uptake of isomers of isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX) onto wet acidic sulfate aerosol. Controlled fragmentation of precursor ions by collisional dissociation (CID) in the transfer region between the IMS and the MS is used to validate MS peak assignments, elucidate structures of oligomers, and confirm the presence of the organosulfate functional group.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca H. Schwantes ◽  
Katherine A. Schilling ◽  
Renee C. McVay ◽  
Hanna Lignell ◽  
Matthew M. Coggon ◽  
...  

Abstract. Hydroxyl radical (OH) oxidation of toluene produces the ring-retaining products cresol and benzaldehyde, and the ring-opening products bicyclic intermediate compounds and epoxides. Here, first- and later-generation OH oxidation products from cresol and benzaldehyde are identified in laboratory chamber experiments. For benzaldehyde, first-generation ring-retaining products are identified, but later-generation products are not detected. For cresol, low-volatility (saturation mass concentration, C* ~ 3.5 × 104–7.7 × 10−3 μg m−3) first- and later-generation ring-retaining products are identified. Subsequent OH addition to the aromatic ring of o-cresol leads to compounds such as hydroxy, dihydroxy, and trihydroxy methyl benzoquinones and dihydroxy, trihydroxy, tetrahydroxy, and pentahydroxy toluenes. These products are detected in the gas phase by chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) and in the particle phase using offline direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS). Our data suggest that the yield of trihydroxy toluene from dihydroxy toluene is substantial. While an exact yield cannot be reported as authentic standards are unavailable, we find that a yield for trihydroxy toluene from dihydroxy toluene of ~ 0.7 (equal to the yield of dihydroxy toluene from o-cresol) is consistent with experimental results for o-cresol oxidation under low-NO conditions. These results suggest that even though the cresol pathway accounts for only ~ 20 % of the oxidation products of toluene, it is the source of a significant fraction (~ 20–40 %) of toluene secondary organic aerosol (SOA) due to the formation of low-volatility products.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Jenkins ◽  
Tami L Swenson ◽  
Rebecca Lau ◽  
Andrea Rocha ◽  
Alex Aaring ◽  
...  

Exometabolomics enables analysis of metabolite utilization of low molecular weight organic substances by soil isolates. Environmentally-based defined media are needed to examine ecologically relevant patterns of substrate utilization. Here, we describe an approach for the construction of defined media using untargeted characterization of water soluble soil metabolites. To broadly characterize soil metabolites, both liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were used. With this approach, 96 metabolites were identified, including amino acids, amino acid derivatives, sugars, sugar alcohols, mono- and di-carboxylic acids, osmolytes, nucleobases, and nucleosides. From this pool of metabolites, 25 were quantified. Water soluble organic carbon was fractionated by molecular weight and measured to determine the fraction of carbon accounted for by the quantified metabolites. This revealed that, much like soil microbial community structures, these soil metabolites have an uneven quantitative distribution, with a single metabolite, trehalose accounting for 9.9 percent of the (< 1 kDa) water extractable organic carbon. This quantitative information was used to formulate two soil defined media (SDM), one containing 23 metabolites (SDM1) and one containing 46 (SDM2). To evaluate SDM for supporting the growth of bacteria found at this field site, we examined the growth of 30 phylogenetically diverse soil isolates obtained using standard R2A medium. The simpler SDM1 supported the growth of up to 13 isolates while the more complex SDM2 supported up to 25 isolates. One isolate, Pseudomonas corrugata strain FW300-N2E2 was selected for a time-series exometabolomics analysis to investigate SDM1 substrate preferences. Interestingly, it was found that this organism preferred lower-abundance substrates such as guanine, glycine, proline and arginine and glucose and did not utilize the more abundant substrates maltose, mannitol, trehalose and uridine. These results demonstrate the viability and utility of using exometabolomics to construct a tractable environmentally relevant media. We anticipate that this approach can be expanded to other environments to enhance isolation and characterization of diverse microbial communities.


2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sjaan D. Bidwell ◽  
Ian E. Woodrow ◽  
George N. Batianoff ◽  
Jens Sommer-Knudsen

Throughout the world, over 400 species of plants are known to accumulate large quantities of metals in their shoots (`hyperaccumulators'), but of these, relatively few accumulate manganese (Mn). We have identified for the first time an Australian native hyperaccumulator of Mn, Austromyrtus bidwillii (Benth.) Burrett (Myrtaceae). Concentrations of Mn up to 19 200 µg g-1 were measured in dried leaves of this rainforest tree, and young bark was found to contain up to 26 500 µg g-1 Mn. Approximately 40% of the Mn in the leaves is readily extracted with water, suggesting that some of the Mn is associated with water-soluble compounds such as organic acids. Organic acids present in appreciable amounts in leaf extracts of A. bidwillii were identified and quantified by HPLC and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The following organic acids (in order of concentration) were present: succinic &gt; malic ≥ malonic &gt; oxalic &gt;&gt; citric acid. The concentration of total organic acids was on average 123 000 µg g-1 dry tissue, which amounted to approximately three times the molar equivalent of Mn and two times the molar equivalent of total cations (Mn, Mg and Ca), demonstrating that organic anions were in excess. The Mn remaining after water extraction ((61 ± 3.9%) could be extracted with 0.2M HCl, suggesting that a significant portion of the Mn is associated with the cell wall (perhaps replacing Ca) or is present as other insoluble compounds.


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