"Experimental and Modeling Studies of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formati" by Song Gao, Dean A. Hegg et al.

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Title

Experimental and Modeling Studies of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation and Some Applications to the Marine Boundary Layer

Authors

Song Gao, University of Washington - Seattle CampusFollow
Dean A. Hegg, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Glendon Frick, Naval Research Laboratory
Peter F. Caffrey, Naval Research Laboratory
Louise Pasternack, Naval Research Laboratory
Chris Cantrell, National Center for Atmospheric Research
William Sullivan, Calspan-University of Buffalo Research Center
John Ambrusko, Calspan - University of Buffalo Research Center
Thomas Albrechcinski, Calspan - University of Buffalo Research Center
Thomas W. Kirchstetter, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-16-2001

Publication Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Keywords

Aerosols and particles, Chemical kinetic and photochemical properties, Pollution, Troposphere

ISSN

2169-897X

Volume

106

Issue/No.

D21

First Page

27619

Last Page

27634

Abstract

A series of controlled experiments were carried out in the Calspan Corporation's 600 m³environmental chamber to study some secondary organic aerosol formation processes. Three precursor-ozone systems were studied: cyclopentene-ozone, cyclohexene-ozone, and α-pineneozone. Additionally, SO₂ was added to the initial gas mixture in several instances and was likely present at trace levels in the ostensibly organic-only experiments. It was found that all three systems readily formed new submicron aerosols at very low reactant levels. The chemical composition of formed aerosols was consistent with some previous studies, but the yields of organic products were found to be lower in the Calspan experiments. A three-step procedure is proposed to explain the observed particle nucleation behavior: HO · production → H₂SO₄ formation → H₂SO₄-H₂O (perhaps together with NH₃) homogeneous nucleation. It is also proposed that some soluble organic products would partition into the newly formed H₂SO₄-H₂O nuclei, enhance water condensation, and quickly grow these nuclei into a larger size range. While the observations in the two cycloolefin-ozone systems could be well explained by these proposed mechanisms, the exact nature of the nucleation process in the α-pinene-ozone system remains rather opaque and could be the result of nucleation involving certain organics. The results from three simple modeling studies further support these proposals. Their applicability to the marine boundary layer (MBL) is also discussed in some detail. Particularly, such a particle nucleation and growth process could play an important role in secondary aerosol formation and, quite likely, CCN formation as well in certain MBL regions.

Comments

NSUWorks Citation

Gao, S., Hegg, D. A., Frick, G., Caffrey, P. F., Pasternack, L., Cantrell, C., Sullivan, W., Ambrusko, J., Albrechcinski, T., & Kirchstetter, T. W. (2001). Experimental and Modeling Studies of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation and Some Applications to the Marine Boundary Layer. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 106, (D21), 27619 - 27634. https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD900170. Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_chemphys_facarticles/143

DOI

10.1029/2001JD900170

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