10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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The Role of Solvent Environment on the Production of Imidazoles in Secondary Organic Aerosol Mimicking Solutions Containing Glyoxal and Ammonium Sulfate
ANDREW BERKE, Tara Bhat, Emma Gubbins, Hunter Myers, Amanda Nwankwo, Smith College
Abstract Number: 174 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, physical properties, and the production of light-absorbing compounds, such as imidazoles. These compounds can subsequently influence a particle’s climatic and human health effects.
Our research seeks to understand the role the solvent environment, due to the addition of non-reactive chemicals, plays in SOA-forming bulk-phase reactions between glyoxal and ammonium sulfate. We use small, atmospherically relevant chemicals to perturb the solvent matrix and then measure the formation kinetics of light-absorbing compounds and solution viscosity of the resultant mixture. Results will be presented for a series of short-chain alcohols and other relevant organic molecules with different functional group moieties (including diols, ketones, esters, and nitriles) that show a relationship between solution viscosity and the production of imidazoles. Reasons for the observed behavior are also explored.