Abstract
Abstract. Little is known about the formation processes of nitrooxy organosulfates (OSs) by nighttime chemistry. Here we characterize nitrooxy OSs at a molecular level in firework-related aerosols in urban Beijing during Chinese New Year. High-molecular-weight nitrooxy OSs with relatively low H / C and O / C ratios and high unsaturation are potentially aromatic-like nitrooxy OSs. They considerably increased during New Year's Eve, affected by the firework emissions. We find that large quantities of carboxylic-rich alicyclic molecules possibly formed by nighttime reactions. The sufficient abundance of aliphatic-like and aromatic-like nitrooxy OSs in firework-related aerosols demonstrates that anthropogenic volatile organic compounds are important precursors of urban secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). In addition, more than 98 % of those nitrooxy OSs are extremely low-volatility organic compounds that can easily partition into and consist in the particle phase and affect the volatility, hygroscopicity, and even toxicity of urban aerosols. Our study provides new insights into the formation of nitrooxy organosulfates from anthropogenic emissions through nighttime chemistry in the urban atmosphere.
Highlights
Secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) are essential components in atmospheric aerosols that are related to climate change, air quality, and human health
The sufficient abundance of aliphatic-like and aromatic-like nitrooxy OSs in firework-related aerosols demonstrates that anthropogenic volatile organic compounds are important precursors of urban secondary organic aerosols (SOAs)
Numbers of nitrooxy OSs were potentially derived from alkene, fatty acids, and aromatics and their derivatives compared to biogenicrelated nitrooxy OSs
Summary
Secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) are essential components in atmospheric aerosols that are related to climate change, air quality, and human health. They are generated through daytime photooxidation, and nighttime chemical oxidation from both biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Hallquist et al, 2009; Rollins et al, 2012; Nozière et al, 2015; Huang et al, 2019). The main precursors of biogenic nitrooxy OSs were isoprene, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and aldehyde, as previous studies observed biogenic nitrooxy OSs in isoprene chamber experiments (Gómez-González et al, 2008; Surratt et al, 2008), a forest (Iinuma et al, 2007b), and urban aerosols (Lin et al, 2012). A recent study reported the presence of nitrooxy OSs in the polar regions (Ye et al, 2021)
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