Authors
Holly K Roth, Thomas Borch, Robert B Young, William Bahureksa, Greg T Blakney, Amelia R Nelson, Michael J Wilkins, Amy M McKenna
Publication date
2022/2/2
Journal
Analytical Chemistry
Volume
94
Issue
6
Pages
2973-2980
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Description
Wildfires affect soils through the formation of pyrogenic organic matter (pyOM) (e.g., char and soot). While many studies examine the connection between pyOM persistence and carbon (C) composition, nitrogen (N) transformation in wildfire-impacted systems remains poorly understood. Thermal reactions in wildfires transform biomass into a highly complex, polyfunctional, and polydisperse organic mixture that challenges most mass analyzers. High-field Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) is the only mass analyzer that achieves resolving powers sufficient to separate species that differ in mass by the mass of an electron across a wide molecular weight range (m/z 150–1500). We report enhanced speciation of organic N by positive-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) that leverages ultrahigh resolving power (mm50% = 1 800 000 at m/z 400) and mass accuracy (<10–100 ppb …
Total citations
2022202320247157