Stable carbon isotope ratio and its use in determination of photochemical processing of ambient volatile organic compounds

Stable Carbon Isotopic Composition measurement technique can provide valuable information about trace gas processing in the atmosphere. It can not only be used to distinguish physical processes such as dilution and mixing from photochemical ageing, but also can be an important tool in identification of sources, calculating the photochemical age and qualitatively and quantitatively connecting precursors with their atmospheric products. Even though isotopic composition analysis is a valuable technique, its use is hindered by the low concentrations of compounds in the atmosphere, complexity of the samples and complex measuring instrumentation. We have developed and validated sampling and instrumental analysis techniques that can be used to perform isotopic composition measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and to apply these methods to analysis of ambient samples. In this poster application of this newly developed sampling and analysis techniques will be presented and discussed using concentrations and stable carbon isotope ratios of ambient VOC collected during 2009-2010 at urban and remote locations of southern Ontario. Photochemical ages determined using conventional hydrocarbon clock will be compared to ones determined with photochemical ages derived from isotope hydrocarbon clock. Advantages of the use of stable carbon isotope ratios over other conventional methods will be outlined and applications of isotope hydrocarbon clock in air quality monitoring will be discussed.