Emission and Photochemical Evolution of Low Vapor Pressure-Volatile Organic Compounds (LVP-VOCs): from Consumer Products to Secondary Organic Aerosol

Abstract:

Missing emission sources contribute to potential problems in air quality modeling and human health. Low Vapor Pressure-Volatile Organic Compounds (LVP-VOCs) are widely used in consumer products and currently receive VOC exemptions based on their vapor pressure. However, 58.5 TPD LVP-VOC is estimated to emit in 2020 from consumer products in California based on government and industry inventory data. This work investigates the emission and photochemical evolution of major LVP-VOCs in consumer products to demonstrate LVP-VOC impacts on criteria air pollutants. LVP-VOC emission potential is investigated by offline gravimetric and online headspace tracking pure compounds and consumer product mixtures under ambient relevant conditions. Only 3 of the 14 pure LVP-VOCs were found to be atmospherically unavailable. All target LVP-VOCs are observed to evaporate from tested consumer product mixtures. We found improved thermodynamic parameters to predict LVP-VOC evaporation rate. LVP-VOCs photochemical evolution and their impact on ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation are evaluated by integrating SAPRC-11 modeling with laboratory studies in a 90 m³ dual environmental chamber at UC Riverside/CE-CERT. Simultaneous photooxidation experiments, with and without the LVP-VOC, are conducted in the presence of reactive organic gas (ROG) surrogate representing urban chemical smog. Further, LVP-VOC photochemical evolution pathway is investigated under various atmospheric activity (LVP + H₂O₂, LVP+NO or LVP+H₂O₂+NO) in the environmental chamber. Gas phase and particle phase mass spectrometers (SIFT-MS, Selected Ion Flow Tube-Mass Spectrum and HR-ToF-MS, High Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol mass Spectrometer) are applied to monitor the evolution of LVP-VOCs in the controlled atmosphere. The potential of LVP-VOC oxidation into ELVOC is also illustrated. We finally interpret the health risk and environmental concern related to LVP-VOC emission and photoxidation.