Quantification of alkenes on indoor surfaces and implications for chemical sources and sinks

Indoor surfaces are known to support organic films, but their thickness, composition, and variability between environments remain poorly characterized. Alkenes are expected to be a significant component of these films, with the reaction with O3 being a major sink for O3 and source of airborne chemicals. Here, we present a sensitive, microscale, nanospectrophotometric method for quantifying the alkene (C=C bond) content of surface films and demonstrate its applicability in five studies relevant to indoor air chemistry. Collection efficiencies determined for a filter wipe method were ~64%, and the overall detection limit for monoalkenes was ~10 nmol m−2. On average, painted walls and glass windows sampled across the University of Colorado Boulder campus were coated by ~4 nm thick films containing ~20% alkenes, and a simple calculation indicates that the lifetime for these alkenes due to reaction with O3 is ~1 hour, indicating that the films are highly dynamic. Measurements of alkenes in films of skin oil, pan‐fried cooking oils, a terpene‐containing cleaner, and on various surfaces in a closed classroom overnight (where carboxyl groups were also measured) provided insight into the effects of chemical and physical processes on film and air composition.