Published 2005 American Geophysical Union.
Reproduced by permission of American Geophysical
Union.Surface analyses of atmospheric aerosols from different continental sources, such as
forest fires and coal and straw burning, show that organic surfactants are found on such
aerosols. The predominant organic species detected by time-of-flight secondary ion
mass spectrometry on the sulfate aerosols are fatty acids of different carbon chain length
up to the C32 acid. These observations are consistent with literature accounts of
functional group analysis of bulk samples, but this is the first direct evidence of fatty acid
films on the surface of sulfate aerosols. Surface analysis leads to the conclusion that
fatty acid films on continental aerosols may be more common than has been previously
suggested