Atmospheric sugar alcohols: evaporation rates and saturation vapor pressures

The atmospheric partitioning between gas and condensed phase of organic molecules is poorly understood, and discrepancies exist between predicted and observed concentrations of secondary organic aerosols. A key problem is the lack of information about thermodynamic properties of semi- and low volatile organic molecules.

Saturation vapor pressure and the associated temperature dependence (dH) are key parameters for improving predictive atmospheric models. In this work we combine experiments and thermodynamic modeling to investigate these parameters for a series of polyols, so-called sugar alcohols. These polyols are common in the water soluble fraction of atmospheric aerosols.

In our experimental system sub-micron particles are generated by nebulization from aqueous solution, and a mono disperse fraction of the aerosol is selected using a differential mobility analyzer. The particles are allowed to evaporate in a laminar flow reactor, and changes in particle size as function of evaporation time are determined using a scanning mobility particle sizer system. In this work saturation vapor pressures of sugar alcohols at several temperatures have been inferred from such measurements using thermodynamic modeling. Results are presented and discussed in context of atmospheric gas to particle partitioning.