Organics in sea-surface microlayers are composed of proteins, polysaccharides, humic-type materials and lipids. As a main component of lipids, fatty acids, including polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), have been detected in considerable amounts in sea-surface water. Previous work from both our group and others has shown that volatile aldehydes are formed from the heterogeneous reaction of PUFA thin films, such as those composed of linoleic acid, with gas-phase O3. Online proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry has been used to extend our investigation of the same reaction to organic monolayers resting on seawater, and we demonstrate that such substrates also yield gas phase aldehydes, including previously unreported malondialdehyde. We will report results from the same heterogeneous oxidation experiment using authentic sea surface microlayer samples, and we are studying the gas phase oxidation of the volatile products, such as malondialdehyde, in a small environmental chamber.

Formation of small gas-phase carbonyls from heterogeneous oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids on seawater

244th National Meeting (2012)

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