Ambient new particle formation (NPF) occurs when gas-phase species come together to form nuclei in the low nanometer size range, which then grow quickly over time.  While nucleation is driven in large part by sulfuric acid, many additional chemical species contribute to particle growth.  Amines are of particular interest for growth since they have been detected at elevated levels during NPF.  An important mechanism of amine uptake is aminium salt formation, either by substituting for ammonium ions that already exist in the particle or by opening new channels for salt formation that are not favorable with ammonia.  This presentation will focus on recent experimental and computational work in our group to study amine uptake into charged nanoclusters of sulfuric acid and ammonia.  We find that amine reactivity is dependent on the size, composition and charge of the cluster.  The implications of these dependencies for NPF will be discussed.

Amine reactivity with molecular clusters relevant to ambient new particle formation

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.