Articles | Volume 20, issue 22
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14123-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14123-2020
Research article
 | 
20 Nov 2020
Research article |  | 20 Nov 2020

Measurements of higher alkanes using NO+ chemical ionization in PTR-ToF-MS: important contributions of higher alkanes to secondary organic aerosols in China

Chaomin Wang, Bin Yuan, Caihong Wu, Sihang Wang, Jipeng Qi, Baolin Wang, Zelong Wang, Weiwei Hu, Wei Chen, Chenshuo Ye, Wenjie Wang, Yele Sun, Chen Wang, Shan Huang, Wei Song, Xinming Wang, Suxia Yang, Shenyang Zhang, Wanyun Xu, Nan Ma, Zhanyi Zhang, Bin Jiang, Hang Su, Yafang Cheng, Xuemei Wang, and Min Shao

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Cited articles

Ahlberg, E., Falk, J., Eriksson, A., Holst, T., Brune, W. H., Kristensson, A., Roldin, P., and Svenningsson, B.: Secondary organic aerosol from VOC mixtures in an oxidation flow reactor, Atmos. Environ., 161, 210–220, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.05.005, 2017. 
Alam, M. S., Stark, C., and Harrison, R. M.: Using Variable Ionization Energy Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry with Comprehensive GC × GC To Identify Isomeric Species, Anal. Chem., 88, 4211–4220, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b03122, 2016. 
Amador-Muñoz, O., Misztal, P. K., Weber, R., Worton, D. R., Zhang, H., Drozd, G., and Goldstein, A. H.: Sensitive detection of n-alkanes using a mixed ionization mode proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5315–5329, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5315-2016, 2016. 
An, Z., Huang, R. J., Zhang, R., Tie, X., Li, G., Cao, J., Zhou, W., Shi, Z., Han, Y., Gu, Z., and Ji, Y.: Severe haze in northern China: A synergy of anthropogenic emissions and atmospheric processes, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 8657–8666, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900125116, 2019. 
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We utilized a novel online mass spectrometry method to measure the total concentration of higher alkanes at each carbon number at two different sites in China, allowing us to take into account SOA contributions from all isomers for higher alkanes. We found that higher alkanes account for significant fractions of SOA formation at the two sites. The contributions are comparable to or even higher than single-ring aromatics, the most-recognized SOA precursors in urban air.
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