Secondary Organic Aerosol Yield from Acetylene Oxidation During Cloud Processing Cycles
Abstract
Many first and second generation products from oxidation of volatile organic compounds
are water soluble, allowing for participation in aqueous phase chemistry. Secondary organic
aerosol formation in the aqueous phase can have a substantial contribution to the overall
tropospheric aerosol concentration. This work describes results from the Multiphase Aging
and Production of Particles (MAPP) chamber, a new chamber designed to allow for both
gas phase and cloud chemistry research. Clouds are generated within the chamber as to
mimic the adiabatic expansion of a rising air parcel in the atmosphere. The adiabatic expansion
cloud formation capabilities of MAPP allows for realistic studies of secondary organic
aerosol production within cloud water droplets. MAPP’s FEP Teflon design is unique to
current cloud chambers used to studying secondary organic aerosol growth and will help reduce
wall interactions that are normally present in stainless steel chambers. Studies using the
MAPP chamber were done with oxidation of acetylene by hydroxyl radicals to produce glyoxal.
Glyoxal, a water soluble organic species, was found to produced significant secondary
organic aerosol growth in the presence of cloud droplets.
Citation
Milan, Cassandra Faye (2018). Secondary Organic Aerosol Yield from Acetylene Oxidation During Cloud Processing Cycles. Master's thesis, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /174049.