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The vertical variations and key drivers of ozone and its precursors, namely NOx and VOCs, in the atmospheric boundary layer, have vital impacts on surface ozone budgets but are poorly understood so far. Using online gradient measurements from a 356 m tower, we obtained continuous vertical profiles of ozone and its precursors, which exhibited strong gradients throughout the day. In the daytime, the vertical gradients of ozone precursors are significantly regulated by reactions with OH radicals. At night, our observations confirmed more intense VOC reactions with NO3 radicals in the residual layer than in the boundary layer. Additionally, we found that residual layer entrainment could contribute to over half of the boundary-layer ozone enhancements in the morning periods. Our results underscore the importance of considering vertical changes of ozone and its precursors in the atmospheric boundary layer when developing future ozone mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) have become an important source of reactive organic gases (ROGs) in urban areas worldwide. Industrial activities can also utilize a large number of VCPs and emit many organic gases into the atmosphere. Due to multiple sampling and measurement challenges, only a subset of ROG species is usually measured for many industrial VCP sources. This study aims to investigate the emissions of ROGs from five industrial VCP sources in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China, including the shoemaking, plastic surface coating, furniture coating, printing, and ship coating industries. A more comprehensive speciation of ROG emissions from these industrial VCP sources was developed by the combination of proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) and the gas chromatography–mass spectrometer/flame ionization detector (GC–MS/FID). Our study identified oxygenated ROG species (OVOCs) as representative ROGs emitted from these sources, which are highly related to specific chemicals used during industrial activities. Moreover, mass spectra similarity analysis revealed significant dissimilarities among the ROG emissions from industrial activities, indicating substantial variations between different industrial VCP sources. Except for the ship coating industry utilizing solvent-borne coatings, the proportions of OVOCs range from 67 % to 96 % in total ROG emissions and 72 % to 97 % in total OH reactivity (OHR) for different industrial sources, while the corresponding contributions of OVOCs in the ship coating industry are only 16 ± 3.5 % and 15 ± 3.6 %. The industrial VCP sources associated with solvent-borne coatings exhibited a higher ozone formation potential (OFP), reaching as high as 5.5 and 2.7 g O 3 g -1 ROGs for the ship coating and furniture coating industries, primarily due to contributions from aromatics. We find that a few species can contribute the majority of the ROG emissions and also their OHR and OFP from various industrial VCP sources. Our results suggest that ROG treatment devices may have limited effectiveness for all ROGs, with treatment efficiencies ranging from - 12 % to 68 %. Furthermore, we found that ambient measurements in industrial areas have been significantly impacted by industrial VCP sources, and ROG pairs (e.g., methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) / C 8 aromatics ratio) can be utilized as reliable evidence by using high-time-resolution ROG measurements from PTR-ToF-MS. Our study demonstrated the importance of measuring a large number of ROGs using PTR-ToF-MS for characterizing ROG emissions from industrial VCP sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are thousands of volatile organic compound (VOC) species in ambient air, while existing techniques can only detect a small part of them (approximately several hundred). The large number of unmeasured VOCs prevents us from understanding the photochemistry of ozone and aerosols in the atmosphere. The major sources and photochemical effects of these unmeasured VOCs in urban areas remain unclear. The missing VOC reactivity, which is defined as the total OH reactivity of the unmeasured VOCs, is a good indicator for constraining the photochemical effect of unmeasured VOCs. Here, we identified the dominant role of anthropogenic emission sources in the missing VOC reactivity (accounting for up to 70 %) by measuring missing VOC reactivity and tracer-based source analysis in a typical megacity in China. Omitting the missing VOC reactivity from anthropogenic emissions in model simulations will remarkably affect the diagnosis of sensitivity regimes for ozone formation, overestimating the degree of VOC-limited regimes by up to 46 %. Therefore, a thorough quantification of missing VOC reactivity from various anthropogenic emission sources is urgently needed for constraints of air quality models and the development of effective ozone control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) have become an important source of reactive organic gases (ROGs) in urban areas worldwide. Industrial activities can also utilize a large amount of VCPs and emit many organic gases into the atmosphere. Due to multiple sampling and measurement challenges, only a subset of ROG species is usually measured for many industrial VCP sources. This study aimed to investigate the emissions of ROGs from five industrial VCP sources in China, including shoemaking, plastic surface coating, furniture coating, printing, and ship coating industries. More comprehensive speciation of ROG emissions from these industrial VCP sources was developed by the combination of the proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) along with gas chromatography-mass spectrometer/flame ionization detector (GC-MS/FID). Our study identified oxygenated ROG species (OVOCs) as representative ROGs emitted from these sources, which are highly related to specific chemicals used during the industrial activities. Moreover, mass spectra similarity analysis revealed significant dissimilarities among the ROG emission sources, indicating substantial variations between different industrial VCP sources. Except for the ship coating industry utilizing solvent-borne coatings, the proportions of OVOCs range from 67 % to 96 % in total ROG emissions and 72 % to 97 % in total OH reactivity (OHR) for different industrial sources. The industrial VCP sources associated with solvent-borne coatings exhibited a higher ozone formation potential (OFP), reaching as high as 5.5 and 2.7 g O3·g-1 ROGs for ship coating and furniture coating industries, primarily due to contributions from aromatics. The fractions of the ten most abundant species in total ROG emissions, OHR, and OFP indicated a highly centralized of ROG emissions from various industrial VCP sources. Our results suggest that ROG treatment devices may have limited effectiveness for all ROGs, with treatment efficiencies ranging from -12 % to 68 %. Furthermore, we found that ROG pairs (e.g., methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) /C8 aromatics ratio) could serve as effective indicators for distinguishing industrial VCP sources, particularly for measurements in industrial areas. Our study demonstrated the importance of measuring a large number of ROGs using PTR-ToF-MS for characterizing ROG emissions from industrial VCP sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are thousands of VOC species in ambient air, while existing techniques can only detect a small part of them (~ several hundred). The large number of unmeasured VOCs prevents us from understanding the photochemistry of ozone and aerosols in the atmosphere. The major sources and photochemical effects of these unmeasured VOCs in urban areas remain unclear. The missing VOC reactivity, which is defined as the total OH reactivity of the unmeasured VOCs, is a good indicator to constrain the photochemical effect of unmeasured VOCs. Here, we identified the dominant role of anthropogenic emission sources in the missing VOC reactivity (accounting for up to 70 %) by measuring missing VOC reactivity and tracer-based source analysis in a typical megacity in China. VOC reactivity from anthropogenic emissions will remarkably affect the diagnosis of sensitivity regimes for ozone formation, overestimating the degree of VOC-limited regime by up to 46 %. Therefore, a thorough quantification of missing VOC reactivity from various anthropogenic emission sources is urgently needed for constraints of air quality models and the development of effective ozone control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lonicera caerulea is a honeysuckle plant with a long development history. It is defined as a "homology of medicine and food" fruit because it is rich in bioactive substances. By-products (such as pomace, leaves, stems, and flowers), which also have beneficial values, will be produced during processing. Nevertheless, the reuse of derivatives and the further development of new products of Lonicera caerulea are still a challenge. Firstly, this paper traced the development history of Lonicera caerulea and summarized its primary nutrients and bioactive substances, subsequently discussed the research progress and underlying molecular mechanisms of its functional properties, and introduced the application and potential of Lonicera caerulea in the fields of food, health products, cosmetics, medicine, and materials. Finally, this paper put forward the future research direction to promote the development of the Lonicera caerulea industry. To sum up, Lonicera caerulea, as a potential raw material, can be used to produce more functional products. Besides, more in-depth clinical trials are needed to clarify the specific molecular mechanism of the practical components of Lonicera caerulea and improve the rate of development and utilization. The original species of Lonicera caerulea subgroup had appeared on the earth as early as the end of the third century. Lonicera caerulea has been introduced into North America since the 18th century, but the introduction process has not ended until now. Lonicera caerulea widely exists in Eurasia and North America and it has excellent cold tolerance, early maturity and ornamental. The fruits, stems, leaves and flowers of Lonicera caerulea all have bioactive value, but the specific molecular mechanism and utilization need to be improved. Lonicera caerulea has been widely used in food, medicine, health products, cosmetics and materials, but there are still great challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the sources and formation mechanism of oxidized organic nitrogen (OON), field measurements of OON were conducted using an iodide-adduct chemical ionization mass spectrometer equipped with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO-CIMS) during fall of 2018 in the megacity of Guangzhou, China. Using levoglucosan as a tracer of biomass burning emissions, the results show that biomass burning (49±23 %) and secondary formation (51±23 %) accounted for comparable fractions to the total particle-phase OON (pOON) but 24±25 % and 76±25 % to the gas-phase OON (gOON), respectively, signifying the important contribution of biomass burning to pOON and secondary formation to gOON in this urban area. Calculations of production rates of gOON indicated that hydroxyl radical (42 %) and nitrate radical (NO 3) (49 %) oxidation pathways potentially dominated the secondary formation of gOON. A high concentration of NO 3 radicals during the afternoon was observed, demonstrating that the daytime NO 3 oxidation might be more important than the previous recognition. Monoterpenes, found to be major precursors of secondary gOON, were mainly from anthropogenic emissions in this urban area. The ratio of secondary pOON to O x ([O x ] = [O 3 ] + [NO 2 ]) increased as a function of relative humidity and aerosol surface area, indicating that heterogeneous reaction might be an important formation pathway for secondary pOON. Finally, the highly oxidized gOON and pOON with 6 to 11 oxygen atoms were observed, highlighting the complex secondary reaction processes of OON in the ambient air. Overall, our results improve the understanding of the sources and dynamic variation of OON in the urban atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cycloalkanes are important trace hydrocarbons existing in the atmosphere, and they are considered as a major class of intermediate volatile organic compounds (IVOCs). Laboratory experiments showed that the yields of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) from oxidation of cycloalkanes are relatively higher than acyclic alkanes with the same carbon number. However, measurements of cycloalkanes in the atmosphere are still challenging at present. In this study, we show that online measurements of cycloalkanes can be achieved using proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry with NO+ chemical ionization (NO+ PTR-ToF-MS). Cyclic and bicyclic alkanes are ionized with NO+ via hydride ion transfer leading to major product ions of C n H2 n -1+ and C n H2 n -3+, respectively. As isomers of cycloalkanes, alkenes undergoes association reactions with major product ions of C n H2 n •(NO)+, and concentrations of 1-alkenes and trans-2-alkenes in the atmosphere are usually significantly lower than cycloalkanes (about 25 % and <5 %, respectively), as the result inducing little interference to cycloalkanes detection in the atmosphere. Calibration of various cycloalkanes show similar sensitivities, associated with small humidity dependence. Appling this method, cycloalkanes were successfully measured at an urban site in southern China and a chassis dynamometer study for vehicular emissions. Concentrations of both cyclic and bicyclic alkanes are significant in urban air and vehicular emissions, with comparable cyclic alkanes/acyclic alkanes ratios between urban air and gasoline vehicles. These results demonstrates that NO+ PTR-ToF-MS provides a new complementary approach for fast characterization of cycloalkanes in both ambient air and emission sources, which can be helpful to fill the gap in understanding importance of cycloalkanes in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicular emission is an important source for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban and downwind regions. In this study, we conducted a chassis dynamometer study to investigate VOC emissions from vehicles using gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel. Time-resolved VOC emissions from vehicles are chemically characterized by a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) with high frequency. Our results show that emission factors of VOCs generally decrease with the improvement of emission standard for gasoline vehicles, whereas variations of emission factors for diesel vehicles with emission standards are more diverse. Mass spectra analysis of PTR-ToF-MS suggest that cold start significantly influence VOCs emission of gasoline vehicles, while the influences are less important for diesel vehicles. Large differences of VOC emissions between gasoline and diesel vehicles are observed with emission factors of most VOC species from diesel vehicles were higher than gasoline vehicles, especially for most oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) and heavier aromatics. These results indicate quantification of heavier species by PTR-ToF-MS may be important in characterization of vehicular exhausts. Our results suggest that VOC pairs (e.g. C14 aromatics/toluene ratio) could potentially provide good indicators for distinguishing emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles. The fractions of OVOCs in total VOC emissions are determined by combining measurements of hydrocarbons from canisters and online observations of PTR-ToF-MS. We show that OVOCs contribute 7.7% ± 6.2% of gasoline vehicles of the total VOC emissions, while the fractions are significantly higher for diesel vehicles (40-77%), highlighting the importance to detect these OVOC species in diesel emissions. Our study demonstrated that the large number of OVOC species measured by PTR-ToF-MS are important in characterization of VOC emissions from vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]