Joel A. Thornton

A large source of low-volatility secondary organic aerosol

Forests emit large quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the atmosphere. Their condensable oxidation products can form secondary organic aerosol, a significant and ubiquitous component of atmospheric aerosol, which is known to affect the Earth’s radiation balance by scattering solar radiation and by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. The quantitative assessment of such climate effects remains hampered by a number of factors, including an incomplete understanding of how biogenic VOCs contribute to the formation of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol. The growth of newly formed particles from sizes of less than three nanometres up to the sizes of cloud condensation nuclei (about one hundred nanometres) in many continental ecosystems requires abundant, essentially non-volatile organic vapours, but the sources and compositions of such vapours remain unknown. Here we investigate the oxidation of VOCs, in particular the terpene α-pinene, under atmospherically relevant conditions in chamber experiments. We find that a direct pathway leads from several biogenic VOCs, such as monoterpenes, to the formation of large amounts of extremely low-volatility vapours. These vapours form at significant mass yield in the gas phase and condense irreversibly onto aerosol surfaces to produce secondary organic aerosol, helping to explain the discrepancy between the observed atmospheric burden of secondary organic aerosol and that reported by many model studies. We further demonstrate how these low-volatility vapours can enhance, or even dominate, the formation and growth of aerosol particles over forested regions, providing a missing link between biogenic VOCs and their conversion to aerosol particles. Our findings could help to improve assessments of biosphere–aerosol–climate feedback mechanisms, and the air quality and climate effects of biogenic emissions generally.

A large atomic chlorine source inferred from mid-continental reactive nitrogen chemistry.

Halogen atoms and oxides are highly reactive and can profoundly affect atmospheric composition. Chlorine atoms can decrease the lifetimes of gaseous elemental mercury and hydrocarbons such as the greenhouse gas methane. Chlorine atoms also influence cycles that catalytically destroy or produce tropospheric ozone, a greenhouse gas potentially toxic to plant and animal life. Conversion of inorganic chloride into gaseous chlorine atom precursors within the troposphere is generally considered a coastal or marine air phenomenon. Here we report mid-continental observations of the chlorine atom precursor nitryl chloride at a distance of 1,400 km from the nearest coastline. We observe persistent and significant nitryl chloride production relative to the consumption of its nitrogen oxide precursors. Comparison of these findings to model predictions based on aerosol and precipitation composition data from long-term monitoring networks suggests nitryl chloride production in the contiguous USA alone is at a level similar to previous global estimates for coastal and marine regions. We also suggest that a significant fraction of tropospheric chlorine atoms may arise directly from anthropogenic pollutants.

N2O5 hydrolysis on sub-micron organic aerosols: the effect of relative humidity, particle phase, and particle size

Measurements of the reactive uptake coefficient for N2O5 hydrolysis, γm, on sub-micron organic aerosols were performed in an entrained aerosol flow tube as a function of relative humidity (RH), aerosol phase, N2O5 partial pressure, and mean aerosol size. Aerosol phase and relative humidity were determined simultaneously, and chemical ionization mass spectrometry was used to detect the decay rate of N2O5 in the presence of malonic acid or azelaic acid aerosol. The γm on solid malonic acid was determined to be less than 0.001 (RH = 10–50%), and on solid azelaic acid, γm was 0.0005 ± 0.0003. Aqueous malonic acid aerosol yielded γm = 0.0020 ± 0.0005 at 10% RH and increased with RH to ∼0.03 at RH = 50–70%. We report the first evidence of an inverse dependence of the γm on the initial partial pressure of N2O5 in the flow reactor, and a dependence on particle size for aerosol with surface area-weighted radii less than ∼100 nm at 50% RH. We find that the super-saturated malonic acid aerosol results are consistent with N2O5 hydrolysis being both aerosol volume-limited where, for RH < 50%, water is the limiting reagent, and also with a surface-specific process.

Nitryl chloride and molecular chlorine in the coastal marine boundary layer.

The magnitude and sources of chlorine atoms in marine air remain highly uncertain but have potentially important consequences for air quality in polluted coastal regions. We made continuous measurements of ambient ClNO(2) and Cl(2) concentrations from May 15 to June 8 aboard the Research Vessel Atlantis during the CalNex 2010 field study. In the Los Angeles region, ClNO(2) was more ubiquitous than Cl(2) during most nights of the study period. ClNO(2) and Cl(2) ranged from detection limits at midday to campaign maximum values at night reaching 2100 and 200 pptv, respectively. The maxima were observed in Santa Monica Bay when sampling the Los Angeles urban plume. Cl(2) at times appeared well correlated with ClNO(2), but at other times, there was little to no correlation implying distinct and varying sources. Well-confined Cl(2) plumes were observed, largely independent of ClNO(2), providing support for localized industrial emissions of reactive chlorine. Observations of ClNO(2), Cl(2), and HCl are used to constrain a simple box model that predicts their relative importance as chlorine atom sources in the polluted marine boundary layer. In contrast to the emphasis in previous studies, ClNO(2) and HCl are dominant primary chlorine atom sources for the Los Angeles basin.

The Formation of Highly Oxidized Multifunctional Products in the Ozonolysis of Cyclohexene

The prompt formation of highly oxidized organic compounds in the ozonolysis of cyclohexene (C6H10) was investigated by means of laboratory experiments together with quantum chemical calculations. The experiments were performed in borosilicate glass flow tube reactors coupled to a chemical ionization atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a nitrate ion (NO3(-))-based ionization scheme. Quantum chemical calculations were performed at the CCSD(T)-F12a/VDZ-F12//ωB97XD/aug-cc-pVTZ level, with kinetic modeling using multiconformer transition state theory, including Eckart tunneling corrections. The complementary investigation methods gave a consistent picture of a formation mechanism advancing by peroxy radical (RO2) isomerization through intramolecular hydrogen shift reactions, followed by sequential O2 addition steps, that is, RO2 autoxidation, on a time scale of seconds. Dimerization of the peroxy radicals by recombination and cross-combination reactions is in competition with the formation of highly oxidized monomer species and is observed to lead to peroxides, potentially diacyl peroxides. The molar yield of these highly oxidized products (having O/C > 1 in monomers and O/C > 0.55 in dimers) from cyclohexene ozonolysis was determined as (4.5 ± 3.8)%. Fully deuterated cyclohexene and cis-6-nonenal ozonolysis, as well as the influence of water addition to the system (either H2O or D2O), were also investigated in order to strengthen the arguments on the proposed mechanism. Deuterated cyclohexene ozonolysis resulted in a less oxidized product distribution with a lower yield of highly oxygenated products and cis-6-nonenal ozonolysis generated the same monomer product distribution, consistent with the proposed mechanism and in agreement with quantum chemical modeling.

An Iodide-Adduct High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Chemical-Ionization Mass Spectrometer: Application to Atmospheric Inorganic and Organic Compounds

A high-resolution time-of-flight chemical-ionization mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-CIMS) using Iodide-adducts has been characterized and deployed in several laboratory and field studies to measure a suite of organic and inorganic atmospheric species. The large negative mass defect of Iodide, combined with soft ionization and the high mass-accuracy (<20 ppm) and mass-resolving power (R>5500) of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer, provides an additional degree of separation and allows for the determination of elemental compositions for the vast majority of detected ions. Laboratory characterization reveals Iodide-adduct ionization generally exhibits increasing sensitivity toward more polar or acidic volatile organic compounds. Simultaneous retrieval of a wide range of mass-to-charge ratios (m/Q from 25 to 625 Th) at a high frequency (>1 Hz) provides a comprehensive view of atmospheric oxidative chemistry, particularly when sampling rapidly evolving plumes from fast moving platforms like an aircraft. We present the sampling protocol, detection limits and observations from the first aircraft deployment for an instrument of this type, which took place aboard the NOAA WP-3D aircraft during the Southeast Nexus (SENEX) 2013 field campaign.

Reactive Uptake of an Isoprene-Derived Epoxydiol to Submicron Aerosol Particles

The reactive uptake of isoprene-derived epoxydiols (IEPOX) is thought to be a significant source of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA). However, the IEPOX reaction probability (γIEPOX) and its dependence upon particle composition remain poorly constrained. We report measurements of γIEPOX for trans-β-IEPOX, the predominant IEPOX isomer, on submicron particles as a function of composition, acidity, and relative humidity (RH). Particle acidity had the strongest effect. γIEPOX is more than 500 times greater on ammonium bisulfate (γ ∼ 0.05) than on ammonium sulfate (γ ≤ 1 × 10(-4)). We could accurately predict γIEPOX using an acid-catalyzed, epoxide ring-opening mechanism and a high Henrys law coefficient (1.7 × 10(8) M/atm). Suppression of γIEPOX was observed on particles containing both ammonium bisulfate and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-300), likely due to diffusion and solubility limitations within a PEG-300 coating, suggesting that IEPOX uptake could be self-limiting. Using the measured uptake kinetics, the predicted atmospheric lifetime of IEPOX is a few hours in the presence of highly acidic particles (pH < 0) but is greater than 25 h on less acidic particles (pH > 3). This work highlights the importance of aerosol acidity for accurately predicting the fate of IEPOX and anthropogenically influenced biogenic SOA formation.

Tropospheric Halogen Chemistry:Sources, Cycling, and Impacts

In the past 40 years, atmospheric chemists have come to realize that halogens exert a powerful influence on the chemical composition of the troposphere and through that influence affect the fate of pollutants and may affect climate. Of particular note for climate is that halogen cycles affect methane, ozone, and particles, all of which are powerful climate forcing agents through direct and indirect radiative effects. This influencecomes from the high reactivity of atomic halogen radicals (e.g.,Cl, Br, I) and halogen oxides (e.g., ClO, BrO, IO, and higher oxides), known as reactive halogen species in this review. These reactive halogens are potent oxidizers for organic and inorganic compounds throughout the troposphere.

Chemistry of Atmospheric Nucleation: On the Recent Advances on Precursor Characterization and Atmospheric Cluster Composition in Connection with Atmospheric New Particle Formation

The recent development in measurement techniques and theoretical understanding has enabled us to study atmospheric vapor, cluster and nanoparticle concentrations, dynamics, and their connection to atmospheric nucleation. Here we present a summary of the chemistry of atmospheric clustering, growing nanoparticles, and their precursors. In this work, we focus particularly on atmospheric gas-to-particle conversion and recent progress in its understanding.

Effect of hydrophobic primary organic aerosols on secondary organic aerosol formation from ozonolysis of α-pinene

[1] Semi-empirical secondary organic aerosol (SOA) models typically assume a well-mixed organic aerosol phase even in the presence of hydrophobic primary organic aerosols (POA). This assumption significantly enhances the modeled SOA yields as additional organic mass is made available to absorb greater amounts of oxidized secondary organic gases than otherwise. We investigate the applicability of this critical assumption by measuring SOA yields from ozonolysis of a-pinene (a major biogenic SOA precursor) in a smog chamber in the absence and in the presence of dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and lubricating oil seed aerosol. These particles serve as surrogates for urban hydrophobic POA. The results show that these POA did not enhance the SOA yields. If these results are found to apply to other biogenic SOA precursors, then the semiempirical models used in many global models would predict significantly less biogenic SOA mass and display reduced sensitivity to anthropogenic POA emissions than previously thought. Citation: Song, C., R. A. Zaveri, M. L. Alexander, J. A. Thornton, S. Madronich, J. V. Ortega, A. Zelenyuk, X.-Y. Yu, A. Laskin, and D. A. Maughan (2007), Effect of hydrophobic primary organic aerosols on secondary organic aerosol formation from ozonolysis of a-pinene, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L20803,