Formation mechanisms of water-soluble organic compounds in atmospheric aerosols

Water-soluble organic compounds (WSOCs) are abundant in atmospheric aerosols, typically accounting for 20∼80% of particulate organic matter mass. Due to their affinity for water, WSOCs play an active role in aerosol-water interaction, and thus influence hygroscopic properties of aerosols, which in turn affect cloud formation processes and earth's radiation balance. Despite their abundance and significance, the sources of WSOCs are not well understood. Some primary sources (e.g., biomass burning) are known to emit WSOCs. It is also known from smog chamber experiments that photochemical oxidation of volatile organic compounds lead to less volatile oxygenated compounds that reside in the aerosol phase and are water-soluble because of the presence of polar functional groups. More recent work points to in-cloud/fog processes as a potentially important source for WSOCs. Work in this thesis aims to improve our understanding of the sources and formation mechanisms of WSOCs in atmospheric aerosols. Multiple approaches have been taken, including field measurements and controlled laboratory experiments. The thesis consists of the following four parts: (1) The formation mechanism of the most abundant WSOC species, oxalate, was investigated by synthesizing field measurement data obtained by our group and those available in the literature. Our measurements of aerosol sulfate and oxalate across a wide geographical span in the East Asia region, up to Beijing in the north and down to Hong Kong in the south, indicated that the two species were highly correlated. This good correlation was also found in measurements made elsewhere in the world by other researchers. Through a detailed analysis of factors influencing ambient oxalate, it can be argued that a common dominant formation pathway, likely in-cloud processing, explains the close tracking of the two chemically distinct species. This result also highlights the potential importance of in-cloud processing as a pathway leading to the formation of secondary organic aerosols. (2) Size distributions of water-soluble organic carbon and oxalate in ambient aerosols were measured in Shenzhen in the summer and the winter of 2005. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...