Significant impact of heterogeneous reactions of reactive chlorine species on summertime atmospheric ozone and free-radical formation in north China

Abstract

Heterogeneous reactions of N2O5, O3, OH, ClONO2, HOCl, ClNO2, and NO2, with chlorine-containing particles are incorporated in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to evaluate the impact of heterogeneous reactions of reactive chlorine species on ozone and free radicals. Changes of summertime ozone and free radical concentrations due to the additional heterogeneous reactions in north China were quantified. These heterogeneous reactions increased the O3, OH, HO2 and RO2 concentrations by up to 20%, 28%, 36% and 48% for some regions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) area. These areas typically have a larger amount of NOx emissions and a lower VOC/NOx ratio. The zero-out method evaluates that the photolysis of ClNO2 and Cl2 are the major contributors (42.4% and 57.6%, respectively) to atmospheric Cl in the early morning hours but the photolysis of Cl2 is the only significant contributor after 10:00 am. The results highlight that heterogeneous reactions of reactive chlorine species are important to atmospheric ozone and free-radical formation. Our study also suggests that the on-going NOx emission controls in the NCP region with a goal to reduce both O3 and secondary nitrate can also have the co-benefit of reducing the formation Cl from ClNO2 and Cl2, which may also lead to lower secondary organic aerosol formation and thus the control of summertime PM2.5 in the region.