Photochemistry of Model Organic Aerosol Systems

Up to 90 percent of urban aerosol particles have been shown to contain organic molecules. Reactions of these particles with atmospheric oxidants and/or sunlight result in large changes in their composition, toxicity, and ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei. For this reason, chemistry of model organic aerosol particles initiated by oxidation and direct photolysis is of great interest to atmospheric, climate, and health scientists. Most studies in this area have focused on identifying the products of oxidation of the organic aerosols, while the products of direct photolysis of the resulting molecules remaining in the aerosol particle have been left mostly unexplored. We have explored direct photolytic processes occurring in selected organic aerosol systems using infrared cavity ringdown spectroscopy to identify small gas phase products of photolysis, and mass-spectrometric and photometric techniques to study the condensed phase products. The first model system was secondary organic aerosol formed from the oxidation of several monoterpenes by ozone in the presence and absence of NOx, under different humidities. The second system modeled after oxidatively aged primary organic aerosol particles was a thin film of either alkanes or saturated fatty acids oxidized in several different ways, with the oxidation initiated by ozone, chlorine atom, or OH. In every case, the general conclusion was that the photochemical processing of model organic aerosols is significant. Such direct photolysis processes are believed to age organic aerosol particles on time scales that are short compared to the particles' atmospheric lifetimes.