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Chemical properties of HULIS from three different environments

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Abstract

Humic-like substances (HULIS) comprise a significant fraction of the organic compounds in aerosol particles. In the present study we report the chemical properties of HULIS samples originating from urban (Copenhagen, Denmark), rural (Melpitz, Germany) and remote (Storm Peak Laboratory, CO, USA) environments. Suwannee River Fulvic Acid Standard (SRFA) was included in the study as a reference. Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy were used together with high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) for characterisation of the samples. The same main functional groups were present in all samples, but the relative abundance of functional groups varied among the studied samples, which was mainly evident from the FTIR spectra. The urban and rural samples were found to be very similar with respect to the relative abundance of functional groups. The remote sample contained relatively more C=O and COOH groups, which may be due to the remote environment. Organonitrates appeared to be present in the three atmospheric samples, while it did not appear to be present in the SRFA. The SRFA sample comprised significantly larger amounts of aromatic groups relative to the atmospheric samples in line with previous findings. All the obtained mass spectra showed clear periods of 14-16 Da in line with previous studies. The estimated average molecular weight (AMW) was comparable for the atmospheric samples within the errors - while the AMW of SRFA was higher. In general the atmospheric HULIS samples from different environments were rather similar with respect to the properties investigated.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Gerald Spindler for providing filter samples from Melpitz. We acknowledge The Danish Ministry of Environment for providing filter samples from H.C. Andersens Boulevard, Denmark, collected during the Danish Air Quality Monitoring program. We thank The Danish Council for Independent Research-Natural Sciences and the Danish Center for Scientific Computing (DCSC) for funding.

The DRI’s SPL is an equal opportunity service provider and employer and is a permittee of the U.S. Medicine-Bow Routt National Forests. This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number AGS-0931431. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

We would like to thank the anonymous referees for their useful suggestions and contributions made for the improvement of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    T. B. Kristensen, L. Du, C. Bender Koch, O. Faurskov Nielsen, H. G. Kjaergaard & M. Bilde

  2. Department of Chemistry and iNANO, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Q. T. Nguyen & M. Glasius

  3. Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Q. T. Nguyen

  4. Desert Research Institute, Storm Peak Laboratory, Steamboat Springs, USA

    J. K. Nøjgaard & A. G. Hallar

  5. Desert Research Institute, Reno, USA

    D. H. Lowenthal

  6. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany

    B. Nekat, D. van Pinxteren & H. Herrmann

  7. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany

    M. Bilde

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  1. T. B. Kristensen
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  2. L. Du
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Kristensen, T.B., Du, L., Nguyen, Q.T. et al. Chemical properties of HULIS from three different environments. J Atmos Chem 72, 65–80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10874-015-9302-8

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