High Abundance of Atmospheric Sulfonates Derived from Light-Duty Gasoline Vehicles

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV) pose a threat to both air quality and human health. However, the molecular compositions and chemical properties of these complex mixtures are poorly understood. In this study, we performed a detailed characterization of exhaust PM from LDGV at various speed phases at the molecular level by employing ultra-high-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. We found that with increasing speed, the number of organic compounds increased significantly, especially organic nitrogen-containing and sulfur-containing compounds. Moreover, the increase of speed leads to high temperature and high pressure in the cylinder, which in turn leads to a series of thermal cracking–polymerization–cyclization reactions, resulting in new particulate matter with more aromatic structures. In addition, considerable intermediate volatility organic compounds and semivolatile organic compounds were identified in the exhaust PM. Notably, we observed the presence of sulfonates in tailpipe particulate matter during low- or high-speed phases, which highlights a previously negligible source of organic sulfonates in the atmosphere.