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Optimization of a Method for the Detection of Biomass-Burning Relevant VOCs in Urban Areas Using Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry
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2020
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Source: Atmosphere, 11(3), 276
[PDF-2.34 MB]
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Journal Title:Atmosphere
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Description:Forest fire smoke influence in urban areas is relatively easy to detect at high concentrations but more challenging to detect at low concentrations. In this study, we present a simplified method that can reliably quantify smoke tracers in an urban environment at relatively low cost and complexity. For this purpose, we used dual-bed thermal desorption tubes with an auto-sampler to collect continuous samples of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We present the validation and evaluation of this approach using thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) to detect VOCs at ppt to ppb concentrations. To evaluate the method, we tested stability during storage, interferences (e.g., water and O-3), and reproducibility for reactive and short-lived VOCs such as acetonitrile (a specific chemical tracer for biomass burning), acetone, n-pentane, isopentane, benzene, toluene, furan, acrolein, 2-butanone, 2,3-butanedione, methacrolein, 2,5- dimethylfuran, and furfural. The results demonstrate that these VOCs can be quantified reproducibly with a total uncertainty of <= 30% between the collection and analysis, and with storage times of up to 15 days. Calibration experiments performed over a dynamic range of 10-150 ng loaded on to each thermal desorption tube at different relative humidity showed excellent linearity (r(2) >= 0.90). We utilized this method during the summer 2019 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments Experiment-Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) intensive experiment at the Boise ground site. The results of this field study demonstrate the method's applicability for ambient VOC speciation to identify forest fire smoke in urban areas.
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Source:Atmosphere, 11(3), 276
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Rights Information:CC BY
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