Emissions of Low-Volatility Gas-Phase Organic Species

While organic compounds with high vapor pressures (VOCs) and those with low vapor pressures (organic aerosol) are now routinely measured in lab and field studies, gas-phase organic compounds with vapor pressures between the two extremes (semivolatile organic compunds and intermediate-volatility organic compounds) generally are not. Thus we have developed a new mass spectrometric instrument for quantifying and chemically characterizing such species as an ensemble. This has been deployed to the field (BEACHON and SOAS), and has also been used to characterize emissions from mobile sources (aircraft and diesel engines).