Tropospheric aerosol particles have often been described and represented in models in a simplistic way where they were considered as non-volatile and chemically inert. Such assumptions have recently been challenged by frontline research, according to which volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) form a system that evolves in the atmosphere by chemical and dynamical processing including chemical interaction with oxidants. A current key issue concern in the physico-chemistry of atmospheric organic particulate matter is that the models based on available parameterizations from laboratory studies strongly underestimate SOA and do not adequately account for aerosol particle growth as it is observed in the atmosphere. The difference between ambient and modeled SOA concentrations clearly suggests that other significant sources of SOA have not yet been identified and characterized.<br/>Furthermore, multiphase processes have also been shown to produce light absorbing compounds in the particle phase. The formation of such light absorbing species could induce new photochemical processes within the aerosol particles and/or at the gas/particle interface. A significant body of literature on photo-induced charge or energy transfer in organic molecules from other fields of science (biochemistry and water waste treatment) exists. Such organic molecules are aromatics, substituted carbonyls and/or nitrogen containing compounds – all ubiquitous in tropospheric aerosols. Therefore, while aquatic photochemistry has recognized several of these processes that accelerate degradation of dissolved organic matter, only little is known about such processes in/on atmospheric particles.<br/>Therefore, this presentation will photosensitization in the troposphere as having a significant role in SOA formation and ageing. Such photosensitization may introduce new chemical pathways so far unconsidered impacting both the chemical composition of the atmosphere and can thus contribute to close the current SOA underestimation.<br/>

Photosensitization in the air: Bridging fundamental bulk processes with secondary organic aerosol production

2019 Fall National Meeting

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