Organic Iodine Compounds in Fine Particulate Matter from a Continental Urban Region: Insights into Secondary Formation in the Atmosphere.

Abstract

Atmospheric iodine chemistry can significantly affect the atmospheric oxidation capacity in certain regions. In such processes, particle-phase organic iodine compounds (OICs) are key reservoir species in their loss processes. However, their presence and formation mechanism remain unclear, especially in continental regions. Using gas chromatography and time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled with both electron capture negative ionization and electron impact sources, this study systematically identified unknown OICs in 2-year samples of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) collected in Beijing, an inland city. We determined the molecular structure of 37 unknown OICs, among which six species were confirmed by reference standards. The higher concentrations for ∑37OICs (median: 280 pg m-3; range: 49.0-770 pg m-3) measured in the heating season indicate intensive coal combustion sources of atmospheric iodine. 1-Iodo-2-naphthol and 4-iodoresorcinol are the most abundant species mainly from primary combustion emission and secondary formation, respectively. The detection of 2- and 4-iodoresorcinols, but not of iodine-substituted catechol/hydroquinone or 5-iodoresorcinol, suggests that they are formed via the electrophilic substitution of resorcinol by hypoiodous acid, a product of the reaction of iodine with ozone. This study reports isomeric information on OICs in continental urban PM2.5 and provides valuable evidence on the formation mechanism of OICs in ambient particles.