Source Attribution of Water-Soluble Organic Aerosol by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Functional group compns. of atm. aerosol water-sol. org. compds. were obtained using proton NMR (1H NMR) spectroscopy in recent expts. worldwide characterized by different aerosol sources and pollution levels. The feasibility of using 1H NMR functional group distributions to identify aerosol sources in different areas is discussed. Despite limited variability of functional group compns. of atm. aerosols, characteristic 1H NMR fingerprints were derived for 3 major aerosol sources: biomass burning, secondary formation from anthropogenic and biogenic volatile org. compds., and oceanic emissions. Functional group patterns obtained in areas characterized by one of the above dominant source processes were compared to identify the dominant sources for mixed source samples. This anal. showed that 1H NMR spectroscopy can be used as a valuable tool for aerosol source identification. Also, compared to other existing methods, it could relate source fingerprints to integral chem. properties of org. mixts., which det. their reactivity, physicochem. properties, and ultimately the atm. fate of org. particles.