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Chemical aging and the hydrophobic‐to‐hydrophilic conversion of carbonaceous aerosol
Author(s) -
Petters Markus D.,
Prenni Anthony J.,
Kreidenweis Sonia M.,
DeMott Paul J.,
Matsunaga Aiko,
Lim Yong B.,
Ziemann Paul J.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2006gl027249
Subject(s) - aerosol , troposphere , scavenging , environmental chemistry , combustion , radiative forcing , environmental science , chemistry , materials science , chemical engineering , photochemistry , atmospheric sciences , organic chemistry , geology , antioxidant , engineering
Laboratory experiments simulating chemical aging of carbonaceous aerosol by atmospheric oxidants demonstrate that oxidative processing increases their ability to activate as cloud droplets. A microphysical model shows, however, that the measured increase in hygroscopicity is insufficient to lead to efficient wet scavenging for sub‐100 nm particles that are typically emitted from combustion sources. The absence of an efficient atmospheric oxidation pathway for hydrophobic‐to‐hydrophilic conversion suggests that the fate of carbonaceous aerosol is instead controlled by its interaction with more hydrophilic species such as sulfates, nitrates, and secondary organic aerosol, leading to longer lifetimes, higher burdens, and greater contributions to climate forcing in the free troposphere than are currently estimated.