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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 6(5)

Development of DNPH/HPLC method for the measurement of carbonyl compounds in the aqueous phase: applications to laboratory simulation and field measurement

Hongli Wang A , Xuan Zhang A and Zhongming Chen A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A State Key Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.

B Corresponding author. Email: zmchen@pku.edu.cn

Environmental Chemistry 6(5) 389-397 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN09057
Submitted: 9 May 2009  Accepted: 17 September 2009   Published: 22 October 2009

Environmental context. Carbonyl compounds, a class of oxygenated organic matter, are crucial participants in atmospheric processes. Recently, studies have shown that the aqueous-phase processes of carbonyls have an important contribution to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which is considered to have a significant impact on global climate change and human health. We developed the classical DNPH/HPLC method to characterise the aqueous-phase carbonyls, especially methacrolein, methyl vinyl ketone, glyoxal, and methylglyoxal, which are important precursors of SOA, in order to better understand the pathways of SOA formation in the atmosphere.

Abstract. The DNPH/HPLC method for characterising monocarbonyls and dicarbonyls in the aqueous phase has been developed. A series of experiments have been carried out using eight atmospheric ubiquitous carbonyl compounds as model dissolved compounds in both acetonitrile and water solution to obtain the optimal derivatisation and analysis qualifications. Compared with the analysis of carbonyls dissolved in acetonitrile, the influence of acidity on the derivatisation efficiency should be carefully considered in determining carbonyls in water and the optimal acidity is pH 2.0. We find that methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) transforms to crotonaldehyde during the derivatisation reaction. This transformation can be controlled to a minor degree by increasing the mixing ratio of DNPH to MVK up to 100 : 1. This improved method has been satisfactorily applied to laboratory simulations and field measurements for better understanding the carbonyl chemistry in the atmosphere.

Additional keywords: aqueous-phase, atmosphere, carbonyl, DNPH/HPLC method.


Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 40875072 and 20677002) for their financial support. The authors thank Mingqun Huo, from the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Peking University, for his precipitation data support.


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