NMR Analysis of the Water-Soluble Fraction of Airborne Pollen Particles

The analysis of ambient organic aerosols by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is limited because of the large number of organic compounds present at low concentrations. Here, we demonstrate the integrative analysis of NMR spectra of airborne pollen particles using reference spectra, spectral similarity metrics, principal components analysis (PCA), and a chemical mass balance model to determine the predominant types of organic compounds. Strong associations among glucose, fucose, specific amino acids, and airborne pollen particles were observed by spectral similarity metrics and PCA. Carbohydrates accounted for about 51 % of the airborne pollen particles in the spectrum followed by amino acids (42 %) and other compounds (7 %). Overall, our investigations showed that analysis of NMR spectral data of mixtures of environmental organic compounds with pattern recognition methods may generate information on the chemical characteristics of the mixture.