Evidence for the role of organics in aerosol particle formation under atmospheric conditions

Edited by Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts, University of California, Irvine, CA, and approved December 15, 2009 (received for review October 2, 2009)
January 19, 2010
107 (15) 6646-6651

Abstract

New particle formation in the atmosphere is an important parameter in governing the radiative forcing of atmospheric aerosols. However, detailed nucleation mechanisms remain ambiguous, as laboratory data have so far not been successful in explaining atmospheric nucleation. We investigated the formation of new particles in a smog chamber simulating the photochemical formation of H2SO4 and organic condensable species. Nucleation occurs at H2SO4 concentrations similar to those found in the ambient atmosphere during nucleation events. The measured particle formation rates are proportional to the product of the concentrations of H2SO4 and an organic molecule. This suggests that only one H2SO4 molecule and one organic molecule are involved in the rate-limiting step of the observed nucleation process. Parameterizing this process in a global aerosol model results in substantially better agreement with ambient observations compared to control runs.

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Acknowledgments.

This work is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Natural Environment Research Council, as well as the European Commission projects EUROCHAMP, POLYSOA, EUCAARI, and CLOUD-ITN. We thank the NASA Global Tropospheric Chemistry Program and investigators (Antony Clarke, University of Hawaii, and Bruce Anderson, NASA) for making available the INTEX-NA observations.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published in

The cover image for PNAS Vol.107; No.15
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Vol. 107 | No. 15
April 13, 2010
PubMed: 20133603

Classifications

Submission history

Published online: January 19, 2010
Published in issue: April 13, 2010

Keywords

  1. aerosol particles
  2. atmospheric nucleation
  3. new particle formation
  4. sulfuric acid

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Natural Environment Research Council, as well as the European Commission projects EUROCHAMP, POLYSOA, EUCAARI, and CLOUD-ITN. We thank the NASA Global Tropospheric Chemistry Program and investigators (Antony Clarke, University of Hawaii, and Bruce Anderson, NASA) for making available the INTEX-NA observations.

Notes

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

Authors

Affiliations

Axel Metzger
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;
Present address: Ionicon Analytik GmbH, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Bart Verheggen
Department of Air Quality and Climate Change, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands;
Josef Dommen
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;
Jonathan Duplissy
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;
Present address: CERN, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
Andre S. H. Prevot
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;
Ernest Weingartner
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;
Ilona Riipinen
Department of Physics, P.O. Box 64; 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland;
Markku Kulmala
Department of Physics, P.O. Box 64; 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland;
Dominick V. Spracklen
Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, United Kingdom;
Kenneth S. Carslaw
Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, United Kingdom;
Urs Baltensperger3 [email protected]
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland;

Notes

3
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
Author contributions: J. Dommen, A.S.H.P., and U.B. designed research; A.M., J. Dommen, J. Duplissy, E.W., D.V.S., and K.S.C. performed research; A.M., B.V., J. Dommen, J. Duplissy, E.W., I.R., M.K., D.V.S., and K.S.C. analyzed data; and A.M., B.V., J. Dommen, and U.B. wrote the paper.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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    Evidence for the role of organics in aerosol particle formation under atmospheric conditions
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    • Vol. 107
    • No. 15
    • pp. 6553-7113

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