Aerosol particles can exhibit chemical and physical properties that are not observed in bulk. This has important implications for air quality, climate, materials synthesis, disease transmission, and other applications. One reason for the unique properties of liquid aerosol particles is that these tiny compartments can achieve extremely high solute concentrations not replicable under bulk conditions. For the case of aqueous aerosol particles, solute concentrations can become higher than the water content, blurring the distinction between solute and solvent. Under these supersaturated conditions, studying the complex interactions between ions, molecules, and water is inherently difficult with conventional methodologies, which has limited our understanding of aerosol phase state and chemical reactivity. Here, I discuss experimental and computational efforts to study ion-molecule interactions in supersaturated aerosol particles. In particular, using levitation-based techniques, we have recently shown that ion clusters and supramolecular networks can have a profound impact on aerosol phase state, where supramolecular interactions lead to viscous and gelatinous phase states. The implications of these observations for aerosol phase and reactivity will be discussed along with recent efforts to understand the molecular-level details of the complex, supramolecular structures that can form in aerosol particles.

Exploring ion-molecule interactions in levitated aerosol particles

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ACS Spring 2023

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