RAPID: Nanoparticle Growth from Anthropogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (AVOC) during CLOUD11

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project will enable participation in the CLOUD11 field campaign that will take place at the CLOUD chamber facility at CERN in Geneva Switzerland (Sept - Nov 2016). The CLOUD facility is unique because of its cleanliness, unique control over a wide range of environmental conditions, demonstrated ability to realize experimental conditions that closely resemble those found in the atmosphere, and access to a large array of state-of-the-art instrumentation provided by the Science team to study gas- and aerosol composition at the molecular level. The broader impacts of this research include improved knowledge about the sources of aerosols relevant to air quality and climate. The CLOUD11 field campaign has the following objectives: (1) Conduct nucleation experiments of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOC); (2) Conduct nucleation experiments involving biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC); and (3) Conduct experiments that focus on OH radical initiated oxidation of AVOC and BVOC, and varying concentrations of SO2, NOx, NH3, and relative humidity (RH). This research supports the deployment of a CE-DOAS instrument to measure glyoxal and methylglyoxal, major first generation oxidation products from aromatic AVOC. This effort includes the investigation of the "salting-in" of volatile (and soluble) molecules as a mechanism to overcome the Kelvin effect towards the efficient growth of neutral stabilized nanoclusters. A systematic study of RH driven "salting-in" in context of nanocluster growth holds potential as a "probe" to trace how much water is associated with nanoparticles and whether they can grow to sizes where they can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) influencing the formation of clouds.