Environmental Analysis of Atmospheric and Water Pollution

As discussed in Sect. 9.2, lAMS has been applied in the study of atmospheric processes. As such, lAMS can contribute to an understanding of acid rain, smog, and other air contamination processes in the atmosphere. Important additional tools in this respects are the aerosol mass spectrometer (Sect. 6.2) and the infrared image furnace (IIF, Sect. 6.4.3). The latter system was involved in studying combustion of polycarbonates, which may result in the emission of the endocrine disraptor bisphe-nol A. Li+-IAMS enabled the detection of the bisphenol A biradical [21]. Similarly, EGA-IAMS has been used to study the pyrolysis of polyacrylamide, which among others results in the suspected carcinogenic monomeric acrylamide [22]. 

The occurrence of highly-reactive and labile peroxides and hydroperoxides in the atmosphere is another issue of concern in environmental analysis. Peroxides are used in polymer industry as a source of free radicals. Conventional EI-MS of peroxides results in extensive fragmentation, whereas lAMS, e.g., in EGA-IAMS (Sect. 6.4.2) enables molecular profiling of peroxides. Proton-transfer reaction MS (PTR-MS) technique has also been used for kinetics studies of organic peroxy radicals such as CH302, CH3CH202, and C3H,02 [23, 24]. 

Portable MS systems based on lAMS have been developed. Such a system enables the real-time analysis in applications such as emission control and monitoring of volatile organic componnds (VOCs) in urban and mral environments, emissions 

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