Molecular Composition of Individual Atmospheric Particles
Toxic organic trace compounds e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from industry, heating, vehicles or wildfires travel ‘on board’ of fine particles in the atmosphere. Their origin, distribution and degradation are a crucial factor for health effects from air pollution. As an example, PAHs can by equally distributed at low concentrations across many particles, or they might be concentrated on few particles, overcoming the lung’s cellular defense and leading to local inflammation – a starting point for serious health effects that are associated with asthma, cardiovascular diseases or cancer.
We developed a new type of mass spectrometer that can detect the fingerprints of PAHs on individual airborne particles in the sub-µm range – along with the particle’s inorganic composition and in real time. Thus, we can explore the detailed distribution, transport pathways and carriers of PAHs in the atmosphere for the first time, paving a route towards sophisticated environmental monitoring for human health.
The research is funded by the Helmholtz International Lab aeroHEALTH, the CRC 1477 ‘Limati’, and the German research foundation Grant ZI 764/6-1.
Co-workers: Dr. Julian Schade, Ellen Iva Rosewig, Paul Haubenwallner