Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
4 years ago

Criegee Intermediates React with Levoglucosan on Water

Criegee Intermediates React with Levoglucosan on Water
A. J. Colussi, Shinichi Enami, Michael R. Hoffmann
Levoglucosan (Levo), a C6-anhydrosaccharide produced in the combustion of cellulosic materials, is the major component of aerosols produced from biomass burning over vast regions worldwide. Levo has long been considered chemically inert and thus has been used as a tracer of biomass burning sources. However, we now show that sugars including Levo, glucose, arabitol, and mannitol react rapidly with Criegee intermediates (CIs) generated during the ozonolysis of sesquiterpenes on the surface of water:acetonitrile microjets. Hydrophilic Levo reacts faster with CIs than with water or surface-active 1-octanol at air–aqueous interfaces. This unexpected phenomenon is likely associated with the relatively low water density at air–aqueous interfaces coupled with a higher gas-phase acidity of the saccharide hydroxyl groups (i.e., −OH) versus n-alkanols. Results presented herein show that aerosol saccharides are in fact reactive toward CIs. Given the abundance of saccharides in the atmosphere, they may be important contributors to the growth and mass loading of secondary organic aerosols.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01665

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01665

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.