In this work, we employed an ATR-IR flow reactor to investigate interfacial chemistry of ozone reaction with atmospheric organics including squalene and phenothrin and the roles of environmental conditions including temperature and relative humidity in the interaction. Squalene, a major composition of skin oil, is the most important ozone scavenger in an indoor environment, whereas, phenothrin is an insecticides widely used both outdoors and indoors. Results show heterogeneous oxidation is very rapid and proceeds via ozonolysis mechanism. Overall ozone reactive uptake is nearly independent of ambient temperature and relativity humidity. In contrast, temperature seemingly affects reaction product formation. DTT assay reveals that redox activity of resulting products is significantly enhanced upon ozone exposure and increases with increasing exposure time. Additional water uptake study reveals that ozone exposure enhances hydrophilicity of reaction products. The changes in redox activity and hydrophilicity could  pose higher risk for public health.

Ozone initiated heterogeneous oxidation of atmospheric organics

249th National Meeting (2015)

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