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Atmospheric evolution of organic aerosol
Author(s) -
Molina M. J.,
Ivanov A. V.,
Trakhtenberg S.,
Molina L. T.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl020910
Subject(s) - volatilisation , aerosol , pyrene , alkane , environmental chemistry , particulates , deposition (geology) , chemistry , hydrocarbon , organic chemistry , geology , paleontology , sediment
We report here results of an experimental study of the OH‐initiated oxidation of solid organics in the presence of O 2 , NO x and H 2 O, using two kinds of self‐assembled organic monolayers (alkane and aromatic), paraffin and pyrene films as proxies for organic aerosol. We show that the OH‐initiated oxidation of the alkane surfaces leads to rapid volatilization. The gas‐phase products detected include HO 2 , H 2 O 2 , CO, CO 2 , HCO, CH 2 O, CH 3 CHO, CH 3 OH, and HCOOH. We conclude that volatilization is at least as efficient as wet deposition as a removal process for aliphatic particulates, whereas aromatic particulates show higher stability towards volatilization.