American Association for Aerosol Research - Abstract Submission

AAAR 36th Annual Conference
October 16 - October 20, 2017
Raleigh Convention Center
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

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Development of a Method for the Measurement of the Water Solubility Distribution of Atmospheric Organic Aerosol

AIKATERINI LIANGOU, Kalliopi Florou, Magdalini Psichoudaki, Evangelia Kostenidou, Epameinondas Tsiligiannis, Spyros Pandis, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

     Abstract Number: 738
     Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate

Abstract
The water solubility is one of the most important physical properties of atmospheric organic aerosol as it influences its ability to uptake water and also to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). In this study, a method for the measurement of the water solubility distribution of atmospheric organic aerosol was developed. This method is based on the extraction of organic aerosol collected on filters, using different amounts of water and measurement of the corresponding water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) concentration. The solubility distribution is then estimated using the solubility basis set of Riipinen et al.(2015). The proposed approach can quantify the solubility distribution in the 10-3-1 g L-1 range.

The method was applied on both ambient and source-specific aerosol. 58-63% of the atmospheric urban background organic aerosol analyzed had water solubility higher than 1 g L-1. 11% of the fresh cooking organic aerosol (COA) had water solubility higher than 0.1 g L-1, while 80% of the total COA had solubility lower than 10-3 g L-1.

Reference:
Riipinen, I.; Rastak, N.; Pandis, S. N. Connecting the solubility and CCN activation of complex organic aerosols: a theoretical study using solubility distributions. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2015, 15, 6305–6322.