In natural environments such as atmospheric aerosols, organic compounds coexist with inorganic salts but, until recently, were not thought to interact chemically. We have recently shown that inorganic ammonium ions, NH4+, act as catalysts for acetal formation from glyoxal, a common atmospheric gas. In this work, we report that inorganic ammonium ions, NH4+, and carbonate ions, CO32−, are also efficient catalysts for the aldol condensation ...
