Heterogeneous reactions of ozone with methoxyphenols, in presence and absence of light

In this work, we investigated the heterogeneous reactions between gaseous ozone and seven particulate methoxyphenols, biomass tracers. The ozonolysis of silica particles coated with vanillin, vanillic acid, syringaldehyde, syringic acid, acetovanillone, acetonsyringone and coniferyl alcohol was studied successively and was carried out both in total darkness and under illumination with simulated solar light at 297 K. The condensed-phase products which emerged in such heterogeneous reactions were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS).No reaction product was detected during the ozonolysis of vanillic acid, syringic acid, acetovanillone and acetosyringone under our experimental conditions.The main tranformation of pathway vanillin and syringaldehyde was the conversion of an aldehyde group to a carboxylic fonction. Thus, syringic acid and vanillic acid were respectively the main oxidation products of syringaldehyde and vanillin.The oxidation of coniferyl alcohol was relatively fast and the total degradation was observed after 16 h of ozone exposure. Five oxidation products: glycolic acid, oxalic acid, vanillin, vanillic acid and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, were identified and confirmed by their corresponding standards. It is interesting to note that 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid was detected only in the experiment performed under combined ozone and light exposure of the particles coated with coniferyl alcohol. Vanillin and vanillic acid also absorb light in the tropospheric actinic window and therefore they can be photochemically active which in turn can induce further modifications of the aerosol particles. A mechanistic pathway was proposed in order to elucidate the ozonolysis reaction of coniferyl alcohol and to explain the identified reaction products.

► We investigated the heterogeneous reactions between ozone and seven methoxyphenols.
► The reaction products have been identified whenever it was possible.
► A reaction mechanism was proposed to elucidate the ozonolysis of coniferyl alcohol.
► These results provide essential information on the behaviour of methoxyphenols.