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Stratification, Solvent-modulated Effects, and Simulations of Solvation in Secondary Organic Aerosol Mimicking Solutions
Emmaline Longnecker, Rebecca Miller, Lucy Metz, Asli Ali, Laura Bickart, Michelle Chen, Maya Morales, Habso Omane, ANDREW BERKE, Smith College
Abstract Number: 182
Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract
The kinetics of light-absorbing compounds and physical properties of secondary organic aerosol mimicking solutions are substantively affected by the surrounding solvent environment. We have found that alcohols perturb this chemical system in species- and concentration-dependent ways. Our present work explores the role that alcohol solutes have on organization, and physical properties, within the solvent using a technique we developed. We freeze tubes of ammonium sulfate-based solutions and then monitor stratification using infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR). We find that the sign of the octanol-water partitioning coefficient of the added solute controls whether the resultant solution will stratify or not. We then add components of the chemical system and show how this solvent environment can help explain previous kinetics results. Results from our ongoing computational work exploring the link(s) between intra-solution bonding relationships and bulk organization and stratification will also be presented.