Tutorial 9:
Aerosol chemical analysis using mass spectrometry
Imad El Haddad, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
Abstract: Aerosols have important impacts on climate, air quality and health. Over the past 2 decades, significant developments in mass spectrometry have advanced our knowledge of aerosol chemical composition, emission sources, formation pathways and environmental impacts. This tutorial will review offline and online aerosol chemical analysis techniques, with a focus on mass spectrometry. Methods for the analysis of aerosol precursors in the gas-phase will also be addressed. Topics covered will include types of mass spectrometers, aerosol sampling inlets, particle sizing methods and ionization sources. The tutorial will also review current mass spectrometric measurements in the laboratory and the field that have advanced our understanding of aerosol sources and formation pathways. Finally, remaining challenges in the field of aerosol analytics will be discussed.
Short bio: Dr. El Haddad has 15 years of experience in atmospheric chemistry, numerical modelling, aerosol source apportionment, and mass spectrometry development and deployment in the laboratory and the field. He is focused on aerosol impacts on air quality, health and climate. He is the research head of the laboratory of atmospheric chemistry at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. His work on mass spectrometry has led to several novel analytical techniques for both offline and online analysis of aerosol bulk and molecular composition. The application of these techniques in both the laboratory and the field have advanced our understanding of aerosol sources and formation pathways in many environments including European cities, China and India. He has developed laboratory setups, model parameterizations, and source apportionment techniques using mass spectrometric data that have led to simple representations of aerosol sources and health impacts in models.
