AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Tunable Laboratory Generated Aerosols: Linking Experimental Data to Field Measurements and Theory
CHRISTOPHER ZANGMEISTER, Xiaofei Ma, Michael Zachariah, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Abstract Number: 306 Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere
Abstract This study focuses on the use of aerosolized graphene oxide (GO) generated from aqueous solution as a model for atmospheric brown and black carbon. We demonstrate that we can control the size, shape, composition, and the absorption and extinction cross-sections of GO. We can tune the shape of GO aerosol from crumpled sheets to nanoscopic spheres using various solution conditions. By thermally processing GO it is reduced to a graphene like material that mimics many of the properties of soot. Optical measurements were made using cavity ring down and photo acoustic spectroscopies, and when coupled to an atmospheric particle mass analyzer we show that GO and reduced GO aerosol are suitable surrogates for absorbing carbonaceous aerosol in the terrestrial atmosphere.