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<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-2026-3897</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Linking Molecular Composition of Organic Aerosols to Reactive Oxygen Species Formation Using an MCR-VK Framework</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Fobang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9914-165X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Yun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yue</surname>
<given-names>Siyao</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>Keskinen</surname>
<given-names>Helmi-Marja K.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3614-0542</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Petäjä</surname>
<given-names>Tuukka</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1881-9044</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>Kulmala</surname>
<given-names>Markku</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3464-7825</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>Fu</surname>
<given-names>Pingqing</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6249-2280</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hoffmann</surname>
<given-names>Thorsten</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0939-271X</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>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Kai</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1305-6789</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tong</surname>
<given-names>Haijie</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9887-7836</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, 55128, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, 55128, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>LAPC, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research / Physics, Faculty of Science, University of  Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014, Helsinki, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station, Hyytiäläntie 124, FI-35500 Korkeakoski, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Surface-Earth System Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Surface Science, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, 21502, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>These authors contributed equally to this work.</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>21</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>28</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Fobang Liu 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-2026-3897/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3897/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3897/egusphere-2026-3897.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3897/egusphere-2026-3897.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation by atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM) is widely implicated in adverse health effects, yet the molecular determinants of particle-level ROS formation remain poorly constrained, largely due to the chemical complexity of organic aerosol (OA). Here, we link ROS formation to molecular-level OA composition by applying a maximum carbonyl ratio-Van Krevelen framework to ambient fine PM collected from four Chinese megacities, a German semi-urban site, a boreal forest, and laboratory-generated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from multiple precursors. Using ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry combined with hydrogen peroxide (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) and radical measurements, we show the intrinsic ROS (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;+radicals) formation potential of fine PM is governed by OA composition rather than particle mass. Volume-normalized ROS yields increase with fine PM mass concentration and dominate overall exposure in polluted urban environments. In contrast, mass-normalized ROS yields vary independently of particle loading and are strongly driven by the balance between relative fractions of oxidized organic compounds (RF&lt;sub&gt;OOC&lt;/sub&gt;) and unsaturated organic compounds (RF&lt;sub&gt;UOC&lt;/sub&gt;), i.e., RF&lt;sub&gt;OOC&lt;/sub&gt;/RF&lt;sub&gt;UOC&lt;/sub&gt;. Across urban sites, mass-normalized ROS and H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; yields exhibit strong correlations with RF&lt;sub&gt;OOC&lt;/sub&gt;/RF&lt;sub&gt;UOC&lt;/sub&gt;, establishing this metric as a robust predictor of ROS formation. Remote, biogenic-influenced aerosols exhibit higher RF&lt;sub&gt;OOC&lt;/sub&gt;/RF&lt;sub&gt;UOC&lt;/sub&gt; and higher ROS yields per unit mass, whereas urban aerosols exhibit the opposite behavior. Laboratory SOA further supports these composition-reactivity relationships, with OOC-rich biogenic SOA exhibiting the highest ROS yields. This study reveals molecular-level characteristics in governing aerosol ROS formation and introduces a framework for assessing health-relevant aerosol oxidative activity of chemically complex OA.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="28"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>42475111</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Research Council of Finland</funding-source>
<award-id>359340</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>Research Council of Finland</funding-source>
<award-id>358647</award-id>
<award-id>367739</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs4">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>ZH 511/8-1</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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