Establishing a model organic film of low volatile compound mixture on aqueous aerosol surface

Abstract

Abstract Long chain fatty acids and alcohols are low volatile species in continental and marine aerosols. We established a surface film model by Langmuir trough to investigate the interfacial properties of sea salts droplets coated by surface active molecules—stearic acid (SA), oleic acid (OA), 1-octadecanol (C18OH) and their mixtures. The aim of this work was to verify the impact of the head group, saturation degree, mixing ratio of different surfactants on miscibility and stability between these compounds in monolayers at the air–water interface. Compared to the organic-coated water droplets, the surface properties of mixed fatty acid and alcohol-coated aqueous sea salt particles are substantially different. Mixed SA/C18OH monolayers are less stable than pure SA or C18OH monolayer at high surface pressure. From the point of view of the geometry, steric hindrance of unsaturated chain is the crucial factor in loose packing of OA monolayer. The negative values of excess mixing areas (ΔAex) for OA/C18OH monolayer on artificial seawater result from the attractive interaction between tail groups. The maximum negative value of excess Gibbs free energies (ΔGex) appears at the equimolecular OA and C18OH. Surface pressure−area (π–A) isotherm combined with equilibrium spreading pressure (ESP) confirms that the tightly packed monolayer formed by C18OH molecules can minimize water evaporation rate of the potential droplet. Different surface properties of organic films coated on aqueous aerosol must have a significant impact on interaction droplet growth. The interactions between fatty acid and alcohol at the air-water interface provide an insight into the nucleation and growth mechanism of droplets covered by film-forming species.