Solving the chemical mysteries of smoke: application of chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for wildfire studies

Wildfires represent a significant global environmental concern due to their profound impact on air quality, climate, and ecosystems. To better understand the complex chemical processes and emissions associated with wildfires, advanced analytical techniques are essential. Chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CI-TOF-MS) has emerged as a powerful tool for real-time, high-resolution analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted during wildfires. This study explores the application of CI-TOF-MS in investigating the composition and temporal evolution of wildfire emissions. Through its ability to rapidly detect and quantify a wide range of VOCs, CI-TOF-MS enables the characterization of both primary emissions and secondary products formed through atmospheric reactions. The real-time capabilities of CI-TOF-MS allow for capturing dynamic changes in emission profiles during different stages of wildfires, facilitating insights into combustion processes and plume evolution. Additionally, CI-TOF-MS can provide valuable data for assessing the environmental and health impacts of emitted VOCs, including their potential role in air quality degradation and formation of secondary pollutants such as ozone and aerosols. I will present several case studies where CI-TOF-MS has been successfully deployed in various wildfire scenarios, highlighting its capability to identify specific marker compounds for different types of biomass burning and to understand how they evolve in the atmosphere. While challenges related to instrument calibration, data interpretation, and sampling represent ongoing areas of research, the utilization of CI-TOF-MS in wildfire studies offers substantial contributions to our understanding of the atmospheric consequences of these natural events.