The Molecular Identification of Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere: State of the Art and Challenges

Barbara Nozière*, Markus Kalberer, Magda Claeys, James Allan, Barbara D'Anna, Stefano Decesari, Emanuela Finessi, Marianne Glasius, Irena Grgić, Jacqueline F. Hamilton, Thorsten Hoffmann, Yoshiteru Iinuma, Mohammed Jaoui, Ariane Kahnt, Christopher J. Kampf, Ivan Kourtchev, Willy Maenhaut, Nicholas Marsden, Sanna Saarikoski, Jürgen Schnelle-KreisJason D. Surratt, Sönke Szidat, Rafal Szmigielski, Armin Wisthaler

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A review of the techniques concerning the Molecular Identification of Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere is presented. An organic compound is fully identified only if its molecular structure is entirely known, including its isomeric and spatial (stereo) configuration. The first type of problem is when organic compounds need to be inventoried for the purpose of establishing a budget. Generally, such budgets are required to gain insights into specific properties of the compounds, such as their optical properties for the global energy budget or their volatility for SOA precursors. In such cases, the organic compounds do not need to be individually identified, but only quantified on the basis of this common property.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3919-3983
Number of pages65
JournalChemical Reviews
Volume115
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Feb 2015

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