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Predicting the importance of oxidative aging on indoor organic aerosol concentrations using the two‐dimensional volatility basis set (2D‐ VBS )
Author(s) -
Cummings Bryan E.,
Waring Michael S.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/ina.12552
Subject(s) - aerosol , volatility (finance) , environmental science , oxidative phosphorylation , basis (linear algebra) , environmental chemistry , basis set , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , econometrics , mathematics , physics , molecule , organic chemistry , biochemistry , geometry
Organic aerosol ( OA ) is chemically dynamic, continuously evolving by oxidative chemistry, for instance, via hydroxyl radical ( OH ) reactions. Studies have explored this evolution (so‐called OA aging ) in the atmosphere, but none have investigated it indoors. Aging organic molecules in both particle and gas‐phases undergo changes in oxygen content and volatility, which may ultimately either enhance or reduce the condensed‐phase OA concentration ( C OA ). This work models OH ‐induced aging using the two‐dimensional volatility basis set (2D‐ VBS ) within an indoor model and explores its significance on C OA relative to prior modeling methodologies which neglect aging transformations. Lagrangian, time‐averaged, and transient indoor simulations were conducted. The time‐averaged simulations included a Monte Carlo procedure and sensitivity analysis, using input distributions typical of U.S. residences. Results demonstrate that indoors, aging generally leads to C OA augmentation. The extent to which this is significant is conditional upon several factors, most notably temperature, OH exposure, and OA mass loading. Time‐averaged C OA was affected minimally in typical residences (<5% increase). However, some plausible cases may cause stronger C OA enhancements, such as in a sunlit room where photolysis facilitates significant OH production (~20% increase), or during a transient OH ‐producing cleaning event (~35% peak increase).