Air Quality Research Center

Research Interests

• Health Effects - Chemical characterization of potentially toxic or carcinogenic particulate matter, new technique development to characterize organic functional groups using FTIR and characterize elements using high-volume sampler and ICP-MS, radical generation due to particles in surrogate lung fluid.
• Urban and Regional Smog - Laboratory studies of the formation of secondary organic aerosols.
• Visibility Degradation - Work with the IMPROVE group at UCDavis which measures the concentration and composition of visibility reducing particles in all the National Parks in the U.S.
• Global Climate Change - Atmospheric transformation of organic particles and their impact on regional climate.

Research Summary

My research focuses on characterizing the chemical composition of atmospheric particles and using this information to better understand sources of particulate matter, visibility degradation, health impacts and climate change. I have recently developed a novel techniques to characterize the organic fraction of particulate matter, the least understand component of particulate matter.

Teaching Summary

I teach undergraduate air pollution courses in Civil and Environmental Engineering (ECI 149) and Land, Air and Water Resources (ERC 131).

Publications:

 

Yatkin, S., Amin, H. S., Trzepla, K., Dillner, A. M.,  Preparation of Lead (Pb) X-ray Fluorescence Reference Materials for the EPA Pb Monitoring Program and the IMPROVE Network Using an Aerosol Deposition Method, Aerosol Science and Technology, 2016, in revision.

Reggente, M., Dillner, A. M., Takahama, S., Predicting ambient aerosol thermal-optical reflectance (TOR) measurements from infrared spectra: extending the predictions to different years and different sites. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions, 2016, in revision.

Dillner, A. M., Takahama, S., Predicting Ambient Aerosol Thermal Optical Reflectance (TOR) Measurements from Infrared Spectra:  Elemental Carbon. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 8, 4013-4023, 2015.

Dillner, A. M., Takahama, S., Predicting Ambient Aerosol Thermal Optical Reflectance (TOR) Measurements from Infrared Spectra:  Organic Carbon. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 8, 1097-1109, 2015.

Takahama, S., Dillner, A. M., Model selection for partial least squares calibration and implications for analysis of atmospheric organic aerosol samples with mid-infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Chemometrics, DOI: 10.1002/cem.2761, 2015.

George, K. M., Ruthenburg, T.C., Smith, J., Yu, L., Zhang, Q., Anastasio, C., Dillner, A. M., FT-IR quantification of the carbonyl functional group in aqueous-phase secondary organic aerosol from phenols. Atmospheric Environment 100 (2015) 230-237.

Ruthenburg, T.C., Perlin, P. C., Liu, V., , McDade, C. E., Dillner, A. M.,  Determination of Organic Mass and Organic Mass to Organic Carbon Ratios by Infrared Spectroscopy with Application to Selected Sites in the IMPROVE Network. Atmospheric Environment, 86,47-57, 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.12.034, 2014.

Indresand H., White, W.H., Trzepla, K., Dillner, A.M., Preparation of sulfur reference materials that reproduce atmospheric particulate matter sample characteristics for XRF calibration. X-Ray Spectrometry, DOI 10.1002/xrs.2456, 2013.

Indresand H., Dillner, A.M., Experimental characterization of sulfur interference in IMPROVE aluminum and silicon XRF data, Atmospheric Environment, 61, 140-147, 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.06.079, 2012.

Dillner, A. M., Phuah, C. H., Turner, J. R., Effects of Post-Sampling Conditions on Ambient Carbon Aerosol Filter Measurements, Atmospheric Environment, 43 (37) 5937–5943, 2009.

Phuah, C. H., Peterson, M. R., Richards, M. H., Turner, J. R., Dillner, A.M., A Temperature Calibration Procedure for the Sunset Laboratory Carbon Aerosol Analysis Lab Instrument, Aerosol Science and Technology, 43 (10) 1013-1021, 2009.

McDade C. E., Dillner, A. M., Indresand, H., Particulate Matter Sample Deposit Geometry and Effective Filter Face Velocities, Journal of Air and Waste Management, 59, 1045–1048, 2009.

Coury, C. Dillner, A.M., ATR-FTIR characterization of organic functional groups and inorganic ions in ambient aerosols at a rural site. Atmospheric Environment, 43, 940–948, 2009.

Vidrio, E. Phuah, C. H., Dillner, A. M., Anastasio, C., Generation of Hydroxyl Radicals from Ambient Fine Particles in a Surrogate Lung Fluid Solution, Environmental Science & Technology, 43 (3) 922–927, 2009.

Coury, C., Dillner, A.M., A Method to Quantify Organic Functional Groups and Inorganic Compounds in Ambient Aerosols using Attenuated Total Reflectance FTIR Spectroscopy and Multivariate Chemometric Techniques. Atmospheric Environment, 41, 9309-9323, 2008.

Coury, C, Dillner, A.M., Trends and sources of particulate matter in the Superstition Wilderness using air trajectory and aerosol cluster analysis.  Atmospheric Environment, 41, 9309-9323, 2007.

Christensen, W.F, Dillner, A.M., Schauer, J.J., Reese, C. S.,  Clustering composition vectors using uncertainty information, Environmetrics, 18, 8, 859-869, 2007.

Dillner, A. M., Shafer, M. M., Schauer, J.J., A novel method using polyurethane foam (PUF) substrates to determine trace element concentrations in size-segregated atmospheric particulate matter on short time scales, Aerosol Science and Technology, 41:75-85, 2007.

Dillner, A. M., J. J. Schauer, Y. Zhang, L. Zeng, and G. R. Cass, Size-resolved particulate matter composition in Beijing during pollution and dust events, Journal of Geophysical  Research, 111, D05203, doi:10.1029/2005JD006400, 2006.

Dillner, A. M., Schauer, J. J., Christensen, W. F., Cass, G. R., A quantitative method for clustering size distributions for elements, Atmospheric Environment, 39, 1525-1537, 2005.

Boreson, J., Dillner, A. M., Peccia, J., Correlating bioaerosol load with PM2.5 and PM10cf concentrations: a comparison between natural desert and urban fringe aerosols, Atmospheric Environment, 38, 6029-6041, 2004.

Dillner, A. M., Stein, C., Larson, S. M., Hitzenberger, R., Measuring the Extinction Efficiency of Elemental Carbon in Rural Aerosol, Aerosol Science and Technology, 35, 1009-1021, 2001.

Hitzenberger, R., Jennings, S. G., Larson, S. M., Dillner, A., Cachier, H., Galambos, Z., Rouc, A., Spain, T. G., Intercomparison of Measurement Methods for Black Carbon Aerosols, Atmospheric Environment, 33, 2823-33, 1999.