Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Analytical Chemistry Seminar: Megan Claflin

Monday April 18 2016 @ 12:00 pm
to 1:00 pm

April

18

Mon

2016

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Event Type
Seminar
Availability

Open to Public

Audience
  • CIRES employees
  • CU Boulder employees
  • General Public
  • NOAA employees
  • Science collaborators
  • Host
    CIRES, CU Boulder

    Analytical & Environmental Chemistry Division and Atmospheric Chemistry Program Seminar

    Jointly sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CIRES, and the Environmental Program

    Effects of Atmospheric Conditions on the Composition of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formed from the Oxidation of Isoprene and Monoterpenes

    by Megan Claflin - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder

    Motivated by the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) field campaign of 2013, a series of environmental chamber experiments have been conducted to study the effect of environmental conditions on aerosol composition formed from biogenic VOC precursors. The experiments, performed under conditions that mimic those observed during SOAS, study the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed from the oxidation of isoprene and select monoterpenes. The composition of the SOA formed was characterized using spectrophotometric functional group analysis methods to quantify the amount of carbonyl [C(O)], carboxylic acid [C(O)OH], hydroxyl [CHOH], ester [C(O)OR], peroxide [CHOOR] and nitrate [CHONO2] groups in the aerosol. Further molecular analysis was done on select systems using various mass spectrometry methods. By comparing the composition of the chamber aerosol with field samples collected during the SOAS campaign, we will attempt to identify the chemistry that leads to aerosol formation in the southeast US.