AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
The Effect of Short-chain Alcohols on Secondary Organic Aerosol Mimicking Solutions Containing Glyoxal and Ammonium Sulfate
ANDREW BERKE, Tara Bhat, Claire Keller, Kim Lu, Hunter Myers, Lily Timpane, Smith College
Abstract Number: 663 Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract The reaction between glyoxal and ammonium sulfate represents an important model system with which to study the non-oxidative production of light absorbing compounds in secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). SOA particles have access to hundreds or thousands of airborne chemicals as they age, and each of these chemicals have the potential to affect particle growth and the production of light-absorbing compounds, such as imidazoles. These compounds can affect particle size, and thereby influence a particles climatic and human health effects.
Our research seeks to elucidate the effect short-chain alcohols have on laboratory-based, bulk-phase SOA chemistry. The kinetics of product formation for compounds, predominantly imidazoles, absorbing near 280 nm are monitored via UV-Vis for aqueous mixtures of glyoxal, ammonium sulfate, and varying concentrations of alcohols. Results will be presented for methanol, ethanol, 1- and 2-propanol, and t-butyl alcohol that show a dependence on both alcohol species and concentration. Reasons for the observed differences in alcohol-mediated reactivity are also explored.