AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Sulfuric Acid Nucleation: A Systematic Study of the Effect of Bases
WALKER GLASOE, Baradan Panta, Juliana Zollner, David Hanson, Augsburg College
Abstract Number: 459 Working Group: Aerosol Nucleation: From Clusters to Nanoparticles
Abstract Nucleation of particles composed of sulfuric acid, water, and nitrogen base molecules was studied using a continuous flow reactor. The particles formed from these vapors were detected with an ultrafine condensation particle counter, while vapors of sulfuric acid and nitrogen bases were detected by chemical ionization mass spectrometry. The effect of ammonia as well as several different amines were investigated. Enhancement of particle numbers when ammonia or amines were added indicates they have powerful effects on the nucleation properties of sulfuric acid vapor. Power dependencies for particle numbers on sulfuric acid and nitrogen bases will be presented. Particle detection efficiencies, the extent of particle growth, and cluster thermodynamics will be discussed with the help of computational fluid dynamics simulations of the flow and chemistry within the flow reactor.