Abstract
The organic fraction of automotive exhaust particles is usually analyzed by Gas Chromatography (GC) or mass spectrometer (MS) after solvent extraction. However, it takes a long time to get analytical results. Progress in understanding and mitigating these problems is limited by the ability of existing instruments to provide real-time, size-resolved, quantitative measurements of aerosol mass and chemical composition. A number of measurement techniques possessing some of the required aerosol analysis capabilities have emerged recently. Real-time aerosol mass spectrometers aim to provide information on chemical composition of particle ensembles. Most of these instruments also provide information on particle size. An Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) with quadrupole (Q)/MS developed at Aerodyne Research has been designed to provide mass loadings for semi-volatile chemical componets that are present on ambient aerosol particles. AMS was improved to use Time of Flight (TOF)/MS exchanged from Q/MS for continuously measuring semi-volatile chemical compositions of automotive exhaust particles. AMS with TOF/MS is called TOFAMS. In this study, we would like to introduce analysis results of semi-volatile chemical composition of some automotive exhaust particles measured by TOFAMS.
