Advances in Mass Spectrometry-based Approaches for Environmental Analysis: Applications to Aerosol Research

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosols are an important component of the Earth’s atmosphere and emitted from a wide range of natural and anthropogenic sources. It has become one of the major issues in the environment due to its impacts on public health and climate change. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative characterization of the atmospheric aerosol is necessary to identify its sources and evolution processes as well as impacts on environment and human wellfare. Until recently, aerosol researches are conducted by collecting particles and gaseous pollutants in ambient air. These filter-based measurements typically have a low time resolution varying from hours to days. However, aerosols are complex mixture and their chemical properties may change on a time scale of seconds to minutes. This makes identification of the chemical properties of aerosol difficult. The application of the real-time measurement techniques with high time resolution can provide a variety of advantages in the field of aerosol research. In recent years, mass spectrometry-based approaches have been developed and applied in atmospheric science. Aerosol Mass Spectrometer has been widely deployed for the characterization of particulate matter, because of its ability for real-time chemical speciation and quantitavie mass loadings as a function of particle size of submicron particulate matters (PM1). Selected Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometer can provide real-time quantitative information on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other trace gases simultaneously in ambient air. Coupled with positive matrix factorization, source apportionment and their contributions to spatial distribution can be distinguished. In this study, we will describe the advantages of the use of mass spectrometry-based approaches in aerosol research based on case studies