Identification of levoglucosan and related steroisomers in fog water as a biomass combustion tracer by ESI-MS/MS

A conspicuous fraction of the water soluble organic compounds (WSOC) in fog and fine aerosol samples is composed by monosaccharide anhydrides, such as levoglucosan and its stereoisomers, galactosan and mannosan. Levoglucosan is produced exclusively during wood combustion processes, making it a very useful tracer for plant combustion emissions in the atmosphere. This paper describes a new experimental approach, based on electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS), for the identification of levoglucosan in fog water samples. The analytical method proposed allows to identify the specific sugar anhydrides directly in the liquid phase without the need of any derivatization process.