Reaction products of glyoxal in atmospheric aerosols

internationalInternational audienceIn recent years, atmospheric observations (Volkamer et al., 2007) and laboratory experiments (Kroll et al., 2005; Volkamer et al., 2009) have shown that glyoxal and its reactions in the aqueous phase of atmospheric particles (Carlton et al., 2007; Nozière et al., 2009; Galloway et al., 2009; Shapiro et al., 2009; Lim et al., 2010) are likely to contribute significantly to the mass of Secondary Organic Aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere, at least in some regions. But while these reactions have been studied in laboratory, no evidence for their occurrence in atmospheric aerosols has been reported until now. In this work, we report the identification of reaction products of glyoxal in aerosols from different origins (Aspvreten, Sweden; Paris France…), confirming the contribution of glyoxal chemistry to these aerosols