Oxidized Nitrogen-Containing Organic Compounds Formation Enhanced the Light Absorption of PM2.5 Brown Carbon
Diwei Wang
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Monitoring and Forewarning of Trace Pollutions, Shaanxi Environmental Monitoring Center Station, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Zhenxing Shen
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Monitoring and Forewarning of Trace Pollutions, Shaanxi Environmental Monitoring Center Station, Xi'an, China
Correspondence to:
Z. Shen,
Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorGezi Bai
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation, Visualization
Search for more papers by this authorLeiming Zhang
Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorShasha Huang
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation, Validation
Search for more papers by this authorHonghao Zheng
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation
Search for more papers by this authorCailan Li
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation
Search for more papers by this authorJian Sun
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorHongmei Xu
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorJunji Cao
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorDiwei Wang
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Monitoring and Forewarning of Trace Pollutions, Shaanxi Environmental Monitoring Center Station, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Zhenxing Shen
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Environmental Monitoring and Forewarning of Trace Pollutions, Shaanxi Environmental Monitoring Center Station, Xi'an, China
Correspondence to:
Z. Shen,
Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorGezi Bai
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation, Visualization
Search for more papers by this authorLeiming Zhang
Air Quality Research Division, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorShasha Huang
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation, Validation
Search for more papers by this authorHonghao Zheng
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation
Search for more papers by this authorCailan Li
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Investigation
Search for more papers by this authorJian Sun
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorHongmei Xu
Xi'an Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorJunji Cao
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Contribution: Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Brown carbon (BrC) is known to have a great impact on atmospheric radiative forcing, but its absorption characteristics at the molecular level is not well understood. This study investigated the seasonal variations of light absorption characteristics and molecular composition of BrC in Xi'an, China. Results showed that BrC exhibited higher light absorption capacity in cold (autumn and winter) than warm seasons (spring and summer). Nitrogen-containing organic compounds were identified as important BrC chromophores. Oxidized-N compounds originated from biomass burning emissions and NOx/NO3− mediated oxidation reactions were predominant in cold seasons, whereas reduced-N compounds mainly formed from NH3/NH4+ mediated reactions were abundant in warm seasons. These results contribute to a better understanding of formation mechanisms and light absorption characteristics of nitrogen-containing BrC chromophores in PM2.5.
Key Points
-
Nitrogen-containing organic compounds were identified as important BrC chromophores
-
Biomass burning and NOx/NO3− mediated oxidation reactions were the main sources of oxidized nitrogen-containing BrC in cold season
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There were more reduced nitrogen-containing BrC formed from NH3/NH4+ mediated reactions in warm seasons
Plain Language Summary
Brown carbon plays an important role in influencing regional and global climate change and air quality. However, the lack of understanding of the composition and formation mechanism of BrC chromophores has limited insights into the changes in BrC absorption properties at the molecular level. This study investigated the factors affecting the seasonal variation of light absorption of BrC in Xi'an based on ultrahigh-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometer measurements. Our results revealed that nitrogen-containing organic compounds are important BrC chromophores with very different sources and formation processes in different seasons. In cold seasons, there were more oxidized nitrogen-containing BrC chromophores, which mainly come from increased biomass combustion and NOx/NO3− mediated oxidation reactions. In warm seasons, there were more reduced nitrogen-containing BrC chromophores, which were derived from secondary formation reactions involving NH3/NH4+. These results are important for better understanding the seasonal variation characteristics and influencing factors of urban atmospheric BrC optical properties.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The data of light absorption characteristics and molecular composition of BrC can be accessed at Zenodo data repository (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14040496) (Wang, Shen, Bai, et al., 2024).
Supporting Information
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| 2024JD042960-T-sup-0001-Supporting Information SI-S01.docx28.8 KB | Supporting Information S1 |
| 2024JD042960-T-sup-0002-Supporting Information SI-S02.docx4.3 MB | Supporting Information S2 |
| 2024JD042960-T-sup-0003-Supporting Information SI-S03.docx29.3 KB | Supporting Information S3 |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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