Profiling quinones in ambient air samples collected from the Athabasca region (Canada)

- Nineteen quinones were determined without derivatization in ambient air.
- Quinones were characterized by phase partitioning, size distribution, and diurnal content.
- Night conditions led to lower concentrations and some quinones not being detected.
- 24-h vs. combined 12-h samplings resulted in the lower abundance of some quinones.
- Measured quinones correlated strongly with oxidizing agents.

This paper presents new findings on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon oxidation products-quinones that were collected in ambient air samples in the proximity of oil sands exploration. Quinones were characterized for their diurnal concentration variability, phase partitioning, and molecular size distribution. Gas-phase (GP) and particle-phase (PM) ambient air samples were collected separately in the summer; a lower quinone content was observed in the PM samples from continuous 24-h sampling than from combined 12-h sampling (day and night). The daytime/nocturnal samples demonstrated that nighttime conditions led to lower concentrations and some quinones not being detected. The highest quinone levels were associated with wind directions originating from oil sands exploration sites. The statistical correlation with primary pollutants directly emitted from oil sands industrial activities indicated that the bulk of the detected quinones did not originate directly from primary emission sources and that quinone formation paralleled a reduction in primary source NOx levels. This suggests a secondary chemical transformation of primary pollutants as the origin of the determined quinones. Measurements of 19 quinones included five that have not previously been reported in ambient air or in Standard Reference Material 1649a/1649b and seven that have not been previously measured in ambient air in the underivatized form. This is the first paper to report on quinone characterization in secondary organic aerosols originating from oil sands activities, to distinguish chrysenequinone and anthraquinone positional isomers in ambient air, and to report the requirement of daylight conditions for benzo[a]pyrenequinone and naphthacenequinone to be present in ambient air.