10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Characterizing Photochemical Environment in the Caltech PhotoOxidation Flow Tube Reactor (CPOT)
YUANLONG HUANG, Ran Zhao, John Seinfeld, California Institute of Technology
Abstract Number: 376 Working Group: Oxidation Flow Reactor: Development, Characterization, and Application to Aerosols
Abstract Flow tube reactors have been widely employed to study gas-phase atmospheric chemistry and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. The Caltech PhotoOxidation flow Tube (CPOT) reactor is designed to investigate SOA related gas- and particle- phase photochemical reactions. Hydrogen peroxide serves as the source of hydroxyl radical (OH) under UV radiation. We report here the characterization of the photochemical environment in the CPOT through both experimental and modeling studies. Emphasis will be placed on the influence of the OH-wall interaction and the external OH reactivity (determined with sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds) on the photooxidative capacity of the CPOT. We will also present a flow-pattern based method to incorporate the residence time distribution (RTD), which reflects the fluid mechanical non-ideality of the reactor, into both data interpretation and model simulation.