Seasonal variability of monosaccharide anhydrides, resin acids, methoxyphenols and saccharides in PM2.5 in Brno, the Czech Republic

PM2.5 aerosols were collected over of 24-hrs on quartz fiber filters in the city of Brno (Czech Republic) in a week campaign in winter, spring, summer and autumn 2010 and winter 2011. Selected organic compounds including monosaccharide anhydrides, methoxyphenols, resin acids and saccharides were determined in collected samples using GC-MS. The analysis of the source specific molecular markers in collected aerosols identified the contributions of three main emission sources, i.e., wood combustion within residential heating, various biological sources and resuspended soil. All analysed particulate organic compounds show seasonal trend. Wood burning products predominate in winter and autumn, while the compounds produced by biological sources or via soil resuspension have the highest concentrations during spring and summer. Softwood was found as a predominantly burnt kind of wood. Levoglucosan was dominant analysed organic compound in winter, autumn and summer, while sucrose prevailed in spring season. Levoglucosan was the most concentrated representative of monosaccharide anhydrides, vanillic acid prevailed among methoxyphenols while dehydroabietic acid and sucrose were the most abundant compounds among resin acids and saccharides, respectively. Within the study, we optimized the extraction procedure and derivatization process to be applicable at the same time for all the studied particulate organic compounds. As a result, the all compounds were extracted from collected aerosols with mixture dichloromethane: methanol (1: 1, v/v), derivatized into trimethylsilyl derivatives with MSTFA + 1% TMCS and determined using GC-MS. (C) 2017 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.