Ozone is the main problem of air pollution in the city of São Paulo. This study, which was carried out in the Brazilian Basic Sanitation Engineering Company (CETESB, acronym in Portuguese) monitoring station of air quality, focused on the elucidation of the main volatile organic compounds ozone precursors in São Paulo atmosphere. Thirty-six samples were collected in August and September 2006, when the consumption of ethanol was about 50%, 69 species of volatile organic compounds were quantified, the ten major urban pollutants compounds in the formation of O3 were: 1-butene (6.8%), ethylene (6.5%), formaldehyde (6.1%), acetaldehyde (5.5%), toluene (4.8%), 1-ethyl-4-methylbenzene (3.7%), trans-2-pentene (3.7%), propylene (3.7%), trans-2-butene (3.5%), and 1-methylcyclopentene (3.5%). The most abundant classes of air concentration were: alkanes (45%), alkenes (26%), aromatics (14%), aldehydes (13%), and alkadyenes (2%).
volatile organic compounds; ozone production potential; air pollution; São Paulo
