How Cooking Emissions Impact Indoor Environments: a focus on triglycerides
Location
Science Center: Bent Corridor
Document Type
Poster - Open Access
Start Date
4-26-2024 12:00 PM
End Date
4-26-2024 2:00 PM
Abstract
The quality of the air we breathe has significant health implications, and an essential source of indoor air pollution comes from cooking activities. However, the long-term effects of exposure to the particulate matter produced by cooking oils still need to be fully understood. Recent studies have shown that indoor surfaces (e.g., walls, furniture, floors) act as reservoirs that can take up particulate matter from the air, which makes the chemical composition on indoor surfaces a valuable proxy for studying air quality. My research investigates how to derivatize and detect triglycerides commonly found in cooking oils in order to characterize the composition of oil residue on indoor surfaces. Fatty acids from triglycerides were extracted from samples and derivatized into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) via an acid-catalyzed transesterification reaction. This method uses an acetyl chloride reaction at elevated temperatures, followed by a neutralization step. The extracted FAMEs were detected and quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Preliminary results focused on successfully developing and optimizing a GC-MS method that allows us to separate and quantify 10 FAMEs, ranging from 15 to 23 carbon atoms in length, that come from triglycerides commonly found in cooking oils. Next, we selected three representative triglycerides, trimyristin, tripalmitin, and tristearin, to test and optimize the derivatization method. Future work includes utilizing cooking oil samples from home kitchens to separate and quantify their composition utilizing our developed GC-MS and derivatization method.
Keywords:
Environmental chemistry, Triglycerides, GC-MS, Fatty acids
Recommended Citation
Yu, Dylan T., "How Cooking Emissions Impact Indoor Environments: a focus on triglycerides" (2024). Research Symposium. 9.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2024/posters/9
Major
Biology
Project Mentor(s)
Rachel Hems, Chemistry and Biochemistry
2024
How Cooking Emissions Impact Indoor Environments: a focus on triglycerides
Science Center: Bent Corridor
The quality of the air we breathe has significant health implications, and an essential source of indoor air pollution comes from cooking activities. However, the long-term effects of exposure to the particulate matter produced by cooking oils still need to be fully understood. Recent studies have shown that indoor surfaces (e.g., walls, furniture, floors) act as reservoirs that can take up particulate matter from the air, which makes the chemical composition on indoor surfaces a valuable proxy for studying air quality. My research investigates how to derivatize and detect triglycerides commonly found in cooking oils in order to characterize the composition of oil residue on indoor surfaces. Fatty acids from triglycerides were extracted from samples and derivatized into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) via an acid-catalyzed transesterification reaction. This method uses an acetyl chloride reaction at elevated temperatures, followed by a neutralization step. The extracted FAMEs were detected and quantified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Preliminary results focused on successfully developing and optimizing a GC-MS method that allows us to separate and quantify 10 FAMEs, ranging from 15 to 23 carbon atoms in length, that come from triglycerides commonly found in cooking oils. Next, we selected three representative triglycerides, trimyristin, tripalmitin, and tristearin, to test and optimize the derivatization method. Future work includes utilizing cooking oil samples from home kitchens to separate and quantify their composition utilizing our developed GC-MS and derivatization method.
