The indirect climate effect represents the largest unknown factor that contributes to climate change. Specifically, the ability of an aerosol particle to take up water and nucleate a cloud droplet is not well understood. However, water pre-adsorption on insoluble atmospheric aerosol particles is known to significantly affect the particle’s ability to become an active cloud condensation nucleus (CCN), and potentially depends on particle morphology as well as size. In order to study the effect of particle morphology on water adsorption to insoluble surfaces, the water content on a model spherical atmospheric insoluble aerosol, 500 nm Polybead® polyhydroxylate microspheres (PHS) was measured as a function of relative humidity (RH). Water adsorption was measured using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) equipped with a flow cell. Results are compared to optical quantitative analysis of water adsorption on the same PHS sample using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and modeled using a standard Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) and Frenkel, Halsey, and Hill (FHH) adsorption model.

Water adsorption on polyhydroxylate microspheres as a function of relative humidity using a quartz crystal microbalance

2019 Spring National Meeting

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