Novel multiparameter optical sensor head design for marine environments.

Anthropogenic activities have led to increased stress on our marine and other aquatic environments. There is a pressing need to monitor, measure, understand and mitigate causes of these pressures. This paper presents a novel optical head for monitoring and measuring marine based optical phenomena.

Source apportionment for indoor air pollution: Current challenges and future directions.

Source apportionment (SA) for indoor air pollution is challenging due to the multiplicity and high variability of indoor sources, the complex physical and chemical processes that act as primary sources, sinks and sources of precursors that lead to secondary formation, and the interconnection with the outdoor environment. While the major indoor sources have been recognized, there is still a need for understanding the contribution of indoor versus outdoor-generated pollutants penetrating indoors, and how SA is influenced by the complex processes that occur in indoor environments. This paper reviews our current understanding of SA, through reviewing information on the SA techniques used, the targeted pollutants that have been studied to date, and their source apportionment, along with limitations or knowledge gaps in this research field.

Photocatalytic fixation of NO in soils.

Nitrogen oxides (NO = NO + NO) are important atmospheric pollutants that are directly harmful to human health. Recently in urban and industrial areas, synthetic materials have been developed and deployed to photocatalytically oxidize NO to nitrate (NO) in order to improve air quality. We show that the natural presence of small amounts (≤5%) of titanium oxides, such as anatase and rutile, can also drive NO oxidation to nitrate in soils under UV-visible irradiation.

Formation of indoor nitrous acid (HONO) by light-induced NO2 heterogeneous reactions with white wall paint.

Gaseous nitrogen dioxide (NO2) represents an oxidant that is present in relatively high concentrations in various indoor settings. Remarkably increased NO2 levels up to 1.5 ppm are associated with homes using gas stoves.

Unexpectedly high indoor hydroxyl radical concentrations associated with nitrous acid.

The hydroxyl (OH) radical is the most important oxidant in the atmosphere since it controls its self-oxidizing capacity. The main sources of OH radicals are the photolysis of ozone and the photolysis of nitrous acid (HONO). Due to the attenuation of solar radiation in the indoor environment, the possibility of OH formation through photolytic pathways indoors has been ignored up to now.

Characterisation and calibration of active sampling Solid Phase Microextraction applied to sensitive determination of gaseous carbonyls.

A characterisation of a system designed for active sampling of gaseous compounds with Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) fibres is described. This form of sampling is useful to automate sampling while considerably reducing the sampling times. However, the efficiency of this form of sampling is also prone to be affected by certain undesirable effects such as fibre saturation, competition or displacement effects between analytes, to which particular attention should be paid especially at high flow rates.

Atmospheric photosensitized heterogeneous and multiphase reactions: from outdoors to indoors.

This proposal involves direct photolysis processes occurring in the troposphere incorporating photochemical excitation and intermolecular energy transfer. The study of such processes could provide a better understanding of ·OH radical formation pathways in the atmosphere and in consequence, of a more accurate prediction of the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Compounds that readily absorb in the tropospheric actinic window (ionic organic complexes, PAHs, aromatic carbonyl compounds) acting as potential photosensitizers of atmospheric relevant processes are explored.

Photolysis and heterogeneous reaction of coniferyl aldehyde adsorbed on silica particles with ozone.

The pseudo-first-order loss of coniferyl aldehyde, adsorbed on silicon dioxide particles, upon heterogeneous ozonolysis was monitored at various ozone mixing ratios in the absence and presence of simulated sunlight. For the first time we investigated the effect of light on the heterogeneous ozonolysis of coniferyl aldehyde adsorbed on silica particles. We found that UV-VIS light (λ>300 nm) does not impact the degradation of coniferyl aldehyde by ozone but induces an additional, slow photolysis of the aldehyde with a photolytic rate constant of ~10(-5) s(-1).