Highly polar organic compounds present in wood smoke and in the ambient atmosphere

Fine particulate matter emitted during wood combustion is known to contribu te a significant fraction of the total fine aerosol concentration in the at mosphere of both urban and rural areas, in the present study, additional or ganic compounds that may act as wood smoke tracers in the atmosphere are so ught. Polar organic compounds in wood smoke fine particulate matter are con verted to their trimethylsilyl derivatives and analyzed by gas chromatograp hy/mass spectrometry. Silylation enables the detection of n-alkanols, plant sterols, and a number of compounds derived from wood lignin that have not previously been reported in wood smoke samples, as well as levoglucosan and related sugar anhydrides formed during the combustion of cellulose. The co ncentrations of these compounds measured in source emissions are compared t o the concentrations in atmospheric fine particle samples collected at a ru ral background site and at two urban sites in California's San Joaquin Vall ey. On the basis of this analysis, the sugar anhydrides galactosan and mann osan can be listed along with levoglucosan as being among the most abundant organic compounds detected in all samples.