These datasets are the raw data presented in the presented work of "Online Aerosol Chemical Characterization by Extractive Electrospray Ionization − Ultrahigh-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (EESI-Orbitrap)" in Environmental Science & Technology Journal, doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b07090. Abstract: Current mass spectrometry techniques for the online measurement of organic aerosol (OA) composition are subjected to either thermal/ionization-induced artifacts or limited mass resolving power, hindering accurate molecular characterization. Here, we combined the soft ionization capability of extractive electrospray ionization (EESI) and the ultrahigh mass resolution of Orbitrap for real-time, near-molecular characterization of OAs. Detection limits as low as tens of ng m−3 with linearity up to hundreds of μg m−3 at 0.2 Hz time resolution were observed for single- and mixed-component calibrations. The performance of the EESI-Orbitrap system was further evaluated with laboratory-generated secondary OAs (SOAs) and filter extracts of ambient particulate matter. The high mass accuracy and resolution (140 000 at m/z 200) of the EESI-Orbitrap system enable unambiguous identification of the aerosol components’ molecular composition and allow a clear separation between adjacent peaks, which would be significantly overlapping if a medium-resolution (20 000) mass analyzer was used. Furthermore, the tandem mass spectrometry (MS2) capability provides valuable insights into the compound structure. For instance, the MS2 analysis of ambient OA samples and lab-generated biogenic SOAs points to specific SOA precursors in ambient air among a range of possible isomers based on fingerprint fragment ions. Overall, this newly developed and characterized EESI-Orbitrap system will advance our understanding of the formation and evolution of atmospheric aerosols. Structure of the datasets: The raw data are separated into individual file of excel format for the figures. Simulation data from Figure 4 can be generated using the matlab code named Figure4PeakSimulation.m.

Raw mass spectrometric data can be requested by contacting corresponding authors (Matthieu Riva: matthieu.riva@ircelyon.univ-lyon1.fr and Imad El Haddad: imad.el-haddad@psi.ch).