Secondary emission hydrolysis

Secondary emission is any process that releases new airborne contaminants from existing sources, changes the total emittable mass of existing contaminants, or results in chemical reactions between compounds on surfaces and in the air. Secondary emission may be based on sorption, oxidation, hydrolysis, decomposition or other chemical reactions in or on a source or the indoor air. A secondary emission process is often highly influenced by past and present environmental conditions. It is not always possible to tell if a compound found in the air is there because of a primary or secondary emission process since a source may emit the same compound by both primary and secondary processes. Purposely added materials such as cleaning products may be a primary emission source, but reactions between constituents of new and existing products may cause a secondary emission process. 

FMOC is a reagent that reacts quickly with both primary and secondary amino acids. Excess reagent must be removed rapidly because it undergoes hydrolysis. The excitation and emission wavelengths are 270 and 315 nm, respectively. An increasingly popular method for amino acid analysis is to measure the primary amino acids with OPA and the secondary amino acids with FMOC. Samples are derivatized first with OPA and then with FMOC. Primary amines are detected using the fluorescence properties of OPA while the secondary amines are detected using those of FMOC. 

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