<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-3647</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>First field deployment of VIA-NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-CIMS for molecular characterization and source apportionment of particle-phase oxygenated organic molecules in eastern China</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Cao</surname>
<given-names>Maoyu</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yan</surname>
<given-names>Chao</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5735-9597</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yuliang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0028-9102</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ge</surname>
<given-names>Dafeng</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yin</surname>
<given-names>Junchao</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Li</surname>
<given-names>Yuanyuan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xu</surname>
<given-names>Tao</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wei</surname>
<given-names>Ziqian</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Jinbo</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Ying</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Zhenning</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mickwitz</surname>
<given-names>Valter</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0415-1789</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Ziheng</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Han</surname>
<given-names>Bisen</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Jianxun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhu</surname>
<given-names>Caijun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Qi</surname>
<given-names>Ximeng</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7840-8239</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zha</surname>
<given-names>Qiaozhi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chi</surname>
<given-names>Xuguang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Zhe</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5627-6562</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhao</surname>
<given-names>Jian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4894-9587</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ehn</surname>
<given-names>Mikael</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0215-4893</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Nie</surname>
<given-names>Wei</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6048-0515</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jiang</surname>
<given-names>Jingkun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ding</surname>
<given-names>Aijun</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4481-5386</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Nanjing-Helsinki Institute in Atmospheric and Earth System Sciences, Nanjing University, Suzhou, 215163, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research/Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, 00014, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>National Satellite Meteorological Center (National Center for Space Weather), China  Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Division of Environment and Sustainability, The Hong Kong University of Science and  Technology, Hong Kong SAR, 999077, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of  Environment, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>08</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>45</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Maoyu Cao et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3647/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3647/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3647/egusphere-2026-3647.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3647/egusphere-2026-3647.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is a major component of fine particulate matter, yet its molecular-level characterization remains challenging. Here, we systematically evaluated the performance of a Volatilization Inlet for Aerosols coupled with nitrate chemical ionization mass spectrometry (VIA-NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-CIMS), including particle transmission, volatilization behavior, quantitative response, and operational stability. Following instrument characterization, the first field deployment of VIA-NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-CIMS was conducted at the SORPES station in Nanjing, eastern China. A high-confidence dataset containing 1,695 particle-phase oxygenated organic molecules (OOMs) was established. The summed OOM concentration correlated strongly with AMS-derived organic aerosol concentrations (r = 0.88), demonstrating the quantitative capability of VIA&amp;ndash;NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;ndash;CIMS. Compared with gas-phase species, particle-phase OOMs exhibited larger carbon numbers, higher unsaturation, and lower volatility, with low-volatility compounds dominating the particle phase. Positive matrix factorization resolved seven SOA factors, including three biogenic-dominated, two anthropogenic-dominated, one regional background, and one pollution-episode factor. These factors contributed approximately 36.5 %, 35.4 %, 15.6 %, and 12.1 % of the total particle-phase OOM signal, respectively. Their molecular characteristics and temporal behaviors indicate important influences from daytime photochemistry, nighttime NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; oxidation, regional transport, and episodic pollution accumulation. Factor contributions evolved systematically with PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt;, with freshly formed SOA dominating under clean conditions and the pollution-episode factor becoming increasingly important as pollution levels increased, eventually dominating under the most polluted conditions. These results demonstrate that VIA-NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-CIMS enables quantitative molecular-level characterization and source apportionment of particle-phase SOA, providing new insights into the composition and evolution of urban organic aerosols.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="45"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>22327806</award-id>
<award-id>42475118</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>