Improving the characterization of dissolved organic carbon in cloud water: Amino acids and their impact on the oxidant capacity

Improving our understanding of cloud chemistry depends on achieving better chemical characterization (90% of the organic carbon [OC] fraction remains uncharacterized) and, consequently, assessing the reactivity of this complex system. In this manuscript, we report for the first time the concentrations of 16 amino acids (AAs) in 25 cloud water samples. The concentrations of individual AAs ranged from a few nM up to ~2.0 μM, and the average contribution of AAs corresponded to 9.1% (4.4 to 21.6%) of the dissolved OC (DOC) concentration. Considering their occurrence and concentrations, AAs were expected to represent an important hydroxyl radical (HO(•)) sink in aqueous cloud samples. In this work, we estimated that approximately 17% (from 7 to 36%) of the hydroxyl radical-scavenging ability of the DOC could be attributed to the presence of AAs, whereas comparing the AAs suggested that an average of 51% (from 22 to 80%) of their reactivity with HO(•) could account for the presence of tryptophan. These results clearly demonstrate that the occurrence and reactivity of AAs must be considered to better estimate the chemical composition and oxidant capacity of the cloud aqueous phase.