The presence of ammonia (A) has been shown to enhance the formation of sulfate aerosols. Alkylamines like methylamine (MA), dimethylamine (DMA) and trimethylamine (TMA) further increase aerosol formation rates by many orders of magnitude relative to ammonia. Recent works have found that the presence of ammonia and alkylamines together increases nucleation rates much more than ammonia or alkylamines alone. To explain this phenomenon, we explored the clustering of sulfuric acid dimers, with two ammonia or alkylamines of the same or different type. Combining thorough configurational sampling approaches with density functional and ab initio calculations, we calculated the thermodynamics of cluster formation for the different systems. As these thermodynamic considerations are not enough to explain the experimental observations, we assessed the the role of kinetic effects in these systems.

Effect of single and multiple types of bases on aerosol formation rates

251st National Meeting (2016)

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