Detailed look at air pollution

Nature's Communications Chemistry is co-authored by Julia Lee-Taylor, a visiting scientist in NCAR's Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling Lab. The study uses the GECKO-A model, a collaboration between NCAR and the University of Paris 12 Cretel. The following is a news release from Yale, which led the study.

A research team, led by Yale and a Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has found that air pollution is much more complicated than previous studies.

Using high-powered equipment to analyze air samples, the researchers were able to provide a detailed look at the molecular makeup of organic aerosols, which has a significant presence in the atmosphere. These are the two types of organic solvents that can be formed during combustion, such as in the exhaust air, and secondary organic aerosols that result from oxidation of organic gases and particulates in the air.

For the study, published Nov. 2 in Nature's Communications Chemistry, the researchers used a combination of liquid chromatography, which separates thousands of compounds in a sample, and a mass spectrometer, which identified and compared those compounds.

Drew Gentner, Assistant Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, "said the study's senior author. "In past studies, they had less information on molecular identities across the complex mixtures present. With these instruments, we can determine molecular formulas with more accuracy. "

Read more at https://news.yale.edu/2018/11/02/whats-air-theres-more-it-we-thought.

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