Atmospheric aerosols are one of the main research topics at our institute. We study thoroughly their formation, interaction, size distribution and also chemical composition. The analysis of organic substances in aerosols using the technique of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is carried out by a team led by dr. Sýkora. Recently, in an article published in the journal Vesmír, we have introduced to the public the newly developed method, called NMR aerosolomics.
The aim of the method is the identification and subsequent quantification of polar organic substances. The main advantage of the new method is the simple preparation of the sample for analysis. The filter with the captured aerosol particles is only extracted into water and then the hydrogen NMR spectrum is measured. This spectrum contains the signals of all the hydrogens of organic substances contained in the sample. The signals are often overlapped, but each substance has its own unique imprint and one isolated signal is often sufficient to identify the substance in the mixture. However, this requires an extensive database of spectra of individual substances that occur in aerosols. In principle, such a database allows the identification and quantification of up to several dozens of major substances.
For this purpose, an extensive database containing approximately 150 substances was built in the NMR laboratory of the ICPF, and thanks to it we are currently able to identify up to seventy substances in one sample. Due to the fact that the atmospheric aerosol comes from various sources, its composition is strongly influenced by its origin. This fact can be used in the recognition of aerosol sources on the basis of different composition depending on the aerosol origin. This is the main goal of the ongoing project supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.
The signal assignment in the sugar region of the proton NMR spectrum.