Highly functionalized organic nitrates in the southeast United States: Contribution to secondary organic aerosol and reactive nitrogen budgets

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Why is it important?

We present online field observations of the speciated molecular composition of organic nitrates in ambient atmospheric particles utilizing recently developed high-resolution MS-based instrumentation. We find that never-before-identified low-volatility organic species, which are highly functionalized, explain a major fraction of the total particle nitrate mass measured by the traditional aerosol mass spectrometer. An observationally constrained box model shows that these organic nitrates are likely derived from oxidation of biogenic hydrocarbons and persist in the particle phase for only a few hours. Given their high rate of loss, their fates have significant implications for the budgets of secondary organic aerosol particles and nitrogen oxides but are currently unknown.