Incremental Reactivity Effects of Anthropogenic and Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds on Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation

Abstract:

Two surrogate reactive organic gas (ROG) mixtures were developed to create a controlled reactivity environment simulating different urban atmospheres with varying levels of anthropogenic (e.g. Los Angeles reactivity) and biogenic (e.g. Atlanta reactivity) influences. Traditional chamber experiments focus on the oxidation of one or two volatile organic compound (VOC) precursors, allowing the reactivity of the system to be dictated by those compounds. Surrogate ROG mixtures control the overall reactivity of the system, allowing for the incremental aerosol formation from an added VOC to be observed. The surrogate ROG mixtures were developed based on that used to determine maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) scales for O₃ formation from VOC precursors in a Los Angeles smog environment. Environmental chamber experiments were designed to highlight the incremental aerosol formation in the simulated environment due to the addition of an added anthropogenic (aromatic) or biogenic (terpene) VOC. All experiments were conducted in the UC Riverside/CE-CERT dual 90m³ environmental chambers. It was found that the aerosol precursors behaved differently under the two altered reactivity conditions, with more incremental aerosol being formed in the anthropogenic ROG system than in the biogenic ROG system. Further, the biogenic reactivity condition inhibited the oxidation of added anthropogenic aerosol precursors, such as m-xylene. Data will be presented on aerosol properties (density, volatility, hygroscopicity) and bulk chemical composition in the gas and particle phases (from a SYFT Technologies selected ion flow tube mass spectrometer, SIFT-MS, and Aerodyne high resolution time of flight aerosol mass spectrometer, HR-ToF-AMS, respectively) comparing the two controlled reactivity systems and single precursor VOC/NOx studies. Incremental aerosol yield data at different controlled reactivities provide a novel and valuable insight in the attempt to extrapolate environmental chamber data to ambient observations and aerosol models.