Evaporation kinetics of acetic acid-water solutions

The transport of water molecules across vapor-liquid interfaces in the atmosphere is a crucial step in the formation and evolution of cloud droplets. Despite decades of study, the effects of solutes on the mechanism and rate of evaporation and condensation remain poorly characterized. The present work aims to determine the effect of atmospherically-relevant solutes on the evaporation rate of water. In our experiments, we create a train of micron-sized droplets and measure their temperature via Raman thermometry as they undergo evaporation without condensation. Analysis of the cooling rate yields the evaporation coefficient (γ). Previous work has shown that inorganic salts have little effect on γ, with surface-adsorbing anions causing a slight reduction in the coefficient from that measured for pure water. Organic acids are ubiquitous in aqueous aerosol and have been shown to disrupt the surface structure of water. Here we describe measurements of the evaporation rate of acetic acid solutions, showing that acetic acid reduces γ to a larger extent than inorganic ions, and that γ decreases with increasing acetic acid concentration.