N-ALKANES, FATTY-ACID ESTERS, AND FATTY-ACID SALTS IN SIZE FRACTIONATED AEROSOLS COLLECTED OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN-SEA

Two main sources of n-alkanes have been identified: terrestrially derived n-alkanes evenly distributed over the whole particle size spectrum and anthropogenic n-alkanes predominantly carried by submicron particles. The comparison between the fatty acid ester (FAE) and fatty acid salt (FAS) particle size distributions allowed an important contribution to be ascertained of the marine source in aerosols ranging from 7.2 to 3.0 μm under rough weather conditions. FAE and FAS were evenly distributed from the first to the fifth stage, when collected during calm sea surface conditions. Higher values of the degree of unsaturation of FAE and FAS were associated with mass concentration maxima observed on stages 2 and 3 in IMP1 aerosol sample. -from Authors