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Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation


EMSL Project ID
20902

Abstract

We propose to simultaneously characterize the time evolution of hydrocarbon precursor gases as well as the chemical and physical properties of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) using an existing 8-m3 aerosol chamber at PNNL, equipped with a suite of instruments available at EMSL. The requested EMSL instruments include the Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTRMS), Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS). A series of carefully designed aerosol chamber experiments will be carried out to study SOA formation from photooxidation of a-pinene and toluene (the most common biogenic and anthropogenic precursors, respectively) in the presence of varying amounts of pre-existing particles (e.g., monodisperse aerosols of ammonium sulfate, flame soot, oleic acid, lubricating oil, etc.). Comprehensive datasets to be obtained from the above mentioned measurements will allow us to determine the particle size distribution, particle density, gas-phase precursors, SOA yield and composition, and whether condensation of SOA species is driven by adsorption on the surface or by absorption in the bulk of the given primary seed aerosol.

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2006-09-05
End Date
2007-09-05
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Rahul Zaveri
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Team Members

Xiao-Ying Yu
Institution
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Chen Song
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

John Ortega
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Carl Berkowitz
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory