Abstract
Abstract. Recent inventory-based analysis suggests that emissions of volatile chemical products in urban areas are competitive with those from the transportation sector. Understanding the potential for secondary organic aerosol formation from these volatile chemical products is therefore critical to predicting levels of aerosol and for formulating policy to reduce aerosol exposure. Experimental and computationally simulated environmental chamber data provide an understanding of aerosol yield and chemistry under relevant urban conditions (5–200 ppb NO and 291–312 K) and give insight into the effect of volatile chemical products on the production of secondary organic aerosol. Benzyl alcohol, one of these volatile chemical products, is found to have a large secondary organic aerosol formation potential. At NO concentrations of ∼ 80 ppb and 291 K, secondary organic aerosol mass yields for benzyl alcohol can reach 1.
Highlights
A major component of ambient fine particulate matter is secondary organic aerosol (SOA), the precursors of which are originally emitted into the atmosphere in the gas-phase (Shrivastava et al, 2017; Goldstein and Galbally, 2007)
Since the difference between the SOA yield calculated with ω = 1 and with ω = 0 is dependent on the amount of organic aerosol that deposits onto the chamber walls, experiments with a higher initial aerosol concentration or that last for a longer period tend to have a greater disparity between SOA yields calculated with the ω = 0 assumption and those calculated with the ω = 1 assumption
The secondary organic aerosol yields of benzyl alcohol determined in this study range from 0.35 to 0.99
Summary
A major component of ambient fine particulate matter is secondary organic aerosol (SOA), the precursors of which are originally emitted into the atmosphere in the gas-phase (Shrivastava et al, 2017; Goldstein and Galbally, 2007). A mass-balance analysis of VCPs in the Los Angeles atmosphere indicates that VCPs could account for around half of the SOA in that area (McDonald et al, 2018) This analysis was based on estimating secondary organic aerosol yields for a number of these oxygenated compounds that have traditionally not been studied for their SOA formation potential. For toluene, a compound for which benzyl alcohol is a major photooxidation product (Hamilton et al, 2005), Zhang et al (2014) found a SOA yield 70 % higher at low NOx concentrations than at high NOx concentrations and found that the true SOA yield was a factor of 4 higher than that calculated without accounting for the chamber process of vapor-wall deposition. Understanding these corrections is critical to ensuring that the SOA yields calculated are atmospherically relevant
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
