Aerosol Uptake and Condensed Phase Reactions of Glyoxal in Salt Solutions

MELISSA M. GALLOWAY (1), Christine L. Loza (2), Lindsay D. Yee (2), Puneet S. Chhabra (2), Man Nin Chan (2), Katherine Schilling (2), Arthur W. H. Chan (2,3), Ge Yu (1), Amanda R. Bayer (1), Kyle J. Korshavn (1,4), John H. Seinfeld (2), Frank N. Keutsch (1)

(1) University of Wisconsin - Madison (2) California Institute of Technology (3) Currently at University of California, Berkeley (4) Currently at Valparaiso University

     Abstract Number: 852
     Last modified: August 10, 2010

Abstract
Glyoxal (CHOCHO) has gained increasing interest in atmospheric chemistry as a tracer of and direct contributor to secondary organic aerosol formation. Chamber studies were performed to investigate glyoxal uptake onto ammonium sulfate aerosol under dark and irradiated conditions both in the presence and absence of OH radical. Gas phase compounds were monitored and the chemical composition of the resulting aerosol was studied to investigate oxidation occurring in both the gas and condensed phases. In addition, condensed phase reactions between glyoxal and various salts were studied in bulk solutions using analytical techniques to analyze the optical properties, chemically specific product distributions, and possible causes of the effects of salts on the Henry’s law constant. This has led to insights into glyoxal reaction kinetics and products as a function of the concentration of glyoxal and salt for several salts. Results will be presented, as well as an analysis of the implications of our findings.