A51N-01:
AMS+ALS: Kinetic and Product Studies of the Heterogeneous Oxidation of Organic Aerosol at the Advanced Light Source
Friday, 19 December 2014: 8:01 AM
Jesse H Kroll1, Kevin R Wilson2, Sean H Kessler1, Eleanor C Browne1, Theodora Nah3, Jared Smith2 and Douglas R Worsnop4, (1)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States, (2)Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (3)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (4)Aerodyne Research Inc, Billerica, MA, United States
Abstract:
The atmospheric oxidation of condensed-phase organic species can have a major influence on the composition, properties, and impacts of organic aerosol (OA); however the rates and products of such “aging” reactions are poorly constrained. Here we describe a series of laboratory experiments aimed at better understanding one class of aging reactions, the heterogeneous oxidation of OA by gas-phase oxidants. Central to these experiments is the availability of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light at the Chemical Dynamics Beamline of the Advanced Light Source at LBNL, which enables the implementation of VUV photoionization aerosol mass spectrometry. This technique allows for the real-time, speciated measurement of OA composition, yielding molecular information that is highly complementary to ensemble data from electron-impact ionization. OA composition is measured with both ionization schemes as a function of oxidant exposure within a flow reactor, providing detailed information on the kinetics and products of heterogeneous oxidation over multiple generations of oxidation. Specific topics investigated include the branching between functionalization and fragmentation of OA components, the formation of secondary organic aerosol from photolytically-generated radical species, and the heterogeneous aging of soot-associated organic species.
