UC Riverside

This dissertation introduces and makes use of the Particle-into-Liquid-Sampler coupled to a Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer (PILS-ToF), a new instrumental method used here to provide new chemical characterization information on secondary organic aerosol (SOA). The PILS-ToF instrument improves upon drawbacks found in current state-of-the-art mass spectral chemical characterization methods to include lack of time resolution and ion fragmentation by electron impact ionization in the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS). The functionality of the PILS-ToF for collection and response to SOA particle formation is validated against a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), a widely accepted and standardized physical chemical characterization instrument, for a well characterized SOA formation experiment, dark ozonolysis of á-pinene. The PILS-ToF is also used to lend insight into oligomer growth during the NO photo-oxidation of isoprene. It is of atmospheric importance to study SOA formation from isoprene as it is globally the most abundant non-methane hydrocarbon in the

ambient. SOA from isoprene is further studied using the PILS-ToF as part of the suite instrumentation at the University of California, Riverside, College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) atmospheric chamber providing a complete chemical and physical characterization of SOA formed by isoprene with various oxidants under a myriad of oxidant concentration conditions. In addition, the PILS-ToF is used, again in tandem with other chemical and physical characterization methods at CE-CERT, to probe temperature effects on SOA formation from isoprene under many different oxidizing conditions. Finally, the PILS-ToF is used to provide new mechanistic information on SOA formation from trimethylamine and tributylamine, two tertiary amines emitted from anthropogenic and animal husbandry processes. For these two teriary amines the PILS-ToF provides evidence of oligomerization giving a potential explanation to the high SOA yields from these parent compounds.