Application of urea adduction technique to polluted urban aerosols for the determination of hydrogen isotopic composition of n-alkanes
We examined an applicability of an improved urea adduction technique for the determination of hydrogen isotopic composition (δD) of homologous series of n-alkanes present in polluted urban aerosols using GC/TC/IRMS. Unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of hydrocarbons that
interferes with accurate isotope measurements of n-alkanes was removed from n-alkane fraction by a urea adduction method. Recoveries of C20 to C30
n-alkanes during the urea adduction procedure were greater than 90% when the concentrations of total
n-alkanes exceed 6.1 µg mL−1. Our compound-specific D/H ratios confirm the absence of significant hydrogen isotope fractionation in n-alkanes during urea adduction and recovery of the purified n-alkane fraction. We applied this technique
to the urban aerosols that contain a large quantity of UCM to measure δD of C20 to C35
n-alkanes in urban aerosols from Tokyo and Sapporo with an accuracy less than 10‰. We found that the δD values widely ranged from −38 to −179‰.
Based on the δD values of individual n-alkanes in aerosol samples, we can obtain further information on the sources of aerosol n-alkanes and their source regions, and the atmospheric processes such as long-range transport and atmospheric mixing of air masses of different
origin.
Keywords: hydrogen isotope; n-alkane; urban aerosol; urea adduction
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Institute of Low Temperature Science,Hokkaido University, N19W8, Kita-kuSapporo, 060-0819, Japan
Publication date: 15 March 2012
- Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Subscribe to this Title
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content