Emissions from biomass
burning are a significant source of brown
carbon (BrC) in the atmosphere. In this study, we investigate the
molecular composition of freshly emitted biomass burning organic aerosol
(BBOA) samples collected during test burns of sawgrass, peat, ponderosa
pine, and black spruce. We demonstrate that both the BrC absorption
and the chemical composition of light-absorbing compounds depend significantly
on the type of biomass fuels. Common BrC chromophores in the selected
BBOA samples include nitro-aromatics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
derivatives, and polyphenols spanning a wide range of molecular weights,
structures, and light absorption properties. A number of biofuel-specific
BrC chromophores are observed, indicating that some of them may be
used as source-specific markers of BrC. On average, ∼50% of
the light absorption in the solvent-extractable fraction of BBOA can
be attributed to a limited number of strong BrC chromophores. The
absorption coefficients of BBOA are affected by solar photolysis.
Specifically, under typical atmospheric conditions, the 300 nm absorbance
decays with a half-life of ∼16 h. A “molecular corridor”
analysis of the BBOA volatility distribution suggests that many BrC
compounds in the fresh BBOA have low saturation mass concentration
(<1 μg m–3) and will be retained in the
particle phase under atmospherically relevant conditions.