Chemical Characterization and Photochemical Evolution of Biomass Burning Particles in the Atmosphere.

Anthropogenic air pollution is associated with premature death in at-risk populations, yet still biomass burning remains an important source of energy in third world countries. There is however uncertainty associated with the chemical composition of particles emitted through biomass burning, as well as their photochemical evolution throughout their atmospheric lifetime. This is in part due to the role that combustion conditions, fuel sources & other environmental factors play on the emission's make-up, in addition to the relatively fast degradation the combustion products experience in the atmosphere. A two-fold approach involving both targeted analysis of the tracer compound sinapaldehyde and untargeted characterization of biomass burning emissions through LC-MS was employed. Different biomasses such as wood, hay, animal dung & more were burned in a laboratory setting at distinct temperatures to observe the resulting chemical species variation. The study has since then been extended to investigate the aqueous phase photochemical aging biomass burning particles experience within a photo-reactor, with the goal of obtaining more information on their degradation pathways under atmospheric conditions.