Properties of Seawater Surfactants Associated with Primary Marine Aerosol Particles Produced by Bursting Bubbles at a Model Air-Sea Interface

Adhesion of impure ice on surfaces

The undesirable buildup of ice can compromise the operational safety of ships in the Arctic to high-flying airplanes, thereby having a detrimental impact on modern life in cold climates. The obstinately strong adhesion between ice and most functional surfaces makes ice removal an energetically expensive and dangerous affair. Hence, over the past few decades, substantial efforts have been directed toward the development of passive ice-shedding surfaces. Conventionally, such research on ice adhesion has almost always been based on ice solidified from pure water. However, in all practical situations, freezing water has dissolved contaminants; ice adhesion studies of which have remained elusive thus far. Here, we cast light on the fundamental role played by various impurities (salt, surfactant, and solvent) commonly found in natural water bodies on the adhesion of ice on common structural materials. We elucidate how varying freezing temperature & contaminant concentration can significantly alter the resultant ice adhesion strength making it either super-slippery or fiercely adherent. The entrapment of impurities in ice changes with the rate of freezing and ensuing adhesion strength increases as the cooling temperature decreases. We discuss the possible role played by the in situ generated solute enriched liquid layer and the nanometric water-like disordered ice layer sandwiched between ice and the substrate behind these observations. Our work provides useful insights into the elementary nature of impure water-to-ice transformation and contributes to the knowledge base of various natural phenomena and rational design of a broad spectrum of anti-icing technologies for transportation, infrastructure, and energy systems.

Surface-Area-to-Volume Ratio Determines Surface Tensions in Microscopic, Surfactant-Containing Droplets

The surface composition of aerosol droplets is central to predicting cloud droplet number concentrations, understanding atmospheric pollutant transformation, and interpreting observations of accelerated droplet chemistry. Due to the large surface-area-to-volume ratios of aerosol droplets, adsorption of surfactant at the air-liquid interface can deplete the droplet's bulk concentration, leading to droplet surface compositions that do not match those of the solutions that produced them. Through direct measurements of individual surfactant-containing, micrometer-sized droplet surface tensions, and fully independent predictive thermodynamic modeling of droplet surface tension, we demonstrate that, for strong surfactants, the droplet's surface-area-to-volume ratio becomes the key factor in determining droplet surface tension rather than differences in surfactant properties. For the same total surfactant concentration, the surface tension of a droplet can be >40 mN/m higher than that of the macroscopic solution that produced it. These observations indicate that an explicit consideration of surface-area-to-volume ratios is required when investigating heterogeneous chemical reactivity at the surface of aerosol droplets or estimating aerosol activation to cloud droplets.

Influence of Air Mass Source Regions on Signatures of Surface-Active Organic Molecules in Size Resolved Atmospheric Aerosol Particles

The physical and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles depend on their sources and lifetime in the atmosphere. In coastal regions, sources may include influences from marine, continental, anthropogenic, and natural emissions. In this study, particles in ten diameter-size ranges were collected, and particle number size distributions were measured, at Skidaway Island, GA in May and June 2018. Based on air mass back trajectories and concentrations of major ions in the particles, the air mass source regions were identified as Marine Influenced, Mixed, and Continental Influenced. Organic molecules were extracted from the particles using solid-phase extraction and characterized using tensiometry and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The presence of surfactants was confirmed in the extracts through the observation of significant surface tension depressions. The organic formulas contained high hydrogen-to-carbon (H/C) and low oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) ratios, similar to surfactants and lipid-like molecules. In the Marine Influenced particles, the fraction of formulas identified as surfactant-like was negatively correlated with minimum surface tensions; as the surfactant fraction increased, the surface tension decreased. Analyses of fatty acid compounds demonstrated that organic compounds extracted from the Marine Influenced particles had the highest carbon numbers (18), compared to those of the Mixed (15) and Continental Influenced (9) particles. This suggests that the fatty acids in the Continental Influenced particles may have been more aged in the atmosphere and undergone fragmentation. This is one of the first studies to measure the chemical and physical properties of surfactants in size-resolved particles from different air mass source regions.

Interfacial photochemistry of marine diatom lipids: Abiotic production of volatile organic compounds and new particle formation

The global importance of abiotic oceanic production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) still presents a source of high uncertainties related to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. A better understanding of the photochemistry occurring at the ocean-atmosphere interface is particularly important in that regard, as it covers >70% of the Earth's surface. In this work, we focused on the photochemical VOCs production at the air-water interface containing organic material from authentic culture of marine diatom Chaetoceros pseudocurvisetus. Abiotic VOCs production upon irradiation of material originating from total phytoplankton culture as well as the fraction containing only dissolved material was monitored by means of PTR-ToF-MS. Furthermore, isolated dissolved lipid fraction was investigated after its deposition at the air-water interface. All samples acted as a source of VOCs, producing saturated oxygenated compounds such as aldehydes and ketones, as well as unsaturated and functionalized compounds. Additionally, a significant increase in surfactant activity following irradiation experiments observed for all samples implied biogenic material photo-transformation at the air-water interface. The highest VOCs flux normalized per gram of carbon originated from lipid material, and the produced VOCs were introduced into an atmospheric simulation chamber, where particle formation was observed after its gas-phase ozonolysis. This work clearly demonstrates abiotic production of VOCs from phytoplankton derived organic material upon irradiation, facilitated by its presence at the air/water interface, with significant potential for affecting the global climate as a precursor of particle formation.

Effect of Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonate on the Production of Cloud Condensation Nuclei from Breaking Waves

While sea spray particles are highly soluble by nature, and are thus excellent seeds for nascent cloud droplets, organic compounds such as surfactants have previously been identified within aerosol particles, bulk seawater, and the sea-surface microlayer in various oceans and seas. As the presence of dissolved surfactants within spray particles may limit their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and since the abundance of CCN available during cloud formation is known to affect cloud albedo, the presence of surfactants in the marine environment can affect the local radiation balance. In this work, we added a model surfactant commonly used in households and industry (sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, SDBS) to a control solution of NaCl and observed its effects on the number of CCN produced by artificial breaking waves. We found that the addition of SDBS modified the number of CCN produced by a breaking wave analogue in three main ways: (I) by reducing the hygroscopicity of the resulting particulate; (II) by producing finer particulates than the control NaCl solution; and (III) by reducing the total number of particles produced overall. In addition, measurements of the absorption of ultraviolet light (λ = 224 nm) were used to quantify the concentration of SDBS in bulk water samples and aerosol extracts. We found that SDBS was significantly enriched in aerosol extracts relative to the bulk water even when the concentration of SDBS in the bulk water was below the limit of detection (LOD) of our quantitation methods. Thus, the surfactant studied will influence the production of CCN even when present in minute concentrations.

Enrichment of short-chain organic acids transferred to submicron sea spray aerosols

Organic acids, considered to be a substantial component of the marine carbon cycle, can enter the atmosphere through sea spray aerosol (SSA) and further affect the climate. Despite their importance, the distribution and mixing state of organic acids in SSA over the marine boundary layer are poorly understood and therefore need more investigation. Here, we have used ion chromatography (IC) in anion mode to measure short-chain organic acids concentrations in SSA collected throughout a custom-made SSA simulation chamber. The enrichment behavior and morphology of monocarboxylic acids (MAs, C_1-8) and dicarboxylic acids (DAs) in submicron SSA were studied in seawater. We found that with MAs addition, the number concentration and mass concentration of SSA particles decreased gradually for C_5-8 MAs, whereas they weakly varied with DAs addition due to the fact that carboxyl groups at both ends of DAs increased the surface tension of seawater. Moreover, the target compounds in submicron SSA displayed a surface activity-dependent enrichment behavior, where seawater with stronger surface activity, such as that containing MAs with >5 carbons, was more enriched in SSA in comparison to seawater with weaker surface activity. MAs with chain length <5 carbons were slightly enriched in SSA, whereas the enrichment factor (EF) of C_5-8 MAs further increased with increasing chain length. These findings are of utmost importance in further understanding and quantifying the contribution of organic matter to SSA, which is crucial for assessing the atmosphere feedback of the marine carbon cycle. MAIN FINDING OF THE WORK: Surface tension of seawater is the key factor affecting the enrichment of short-chain organic acids in SSA.

Isotopic Insights into Organic Composition Differences between Supermicron and Submicron Sea Spray Aerosol

To elucidate the seawater biological and physicochemical factors driving differences in organic composition between supermicron and submicron sea spray aerosol (SSA_super and SSA_sub), carbon isotopic composition (δ¹³C) measurements were performed on size-segregated, nascent SSA collected during a phytoplankton bloom mesocosm experiment. The δ¹³C measurements indicate that SSA_super contains a mixture of particulate and dissolved organic material in the bulk seawater. After phytoplankton growth, a greater amount of freshly produced carbon was observed in SSA_super with the proportional contribution being modulated by bacterial activity, emphasizing the importance of the microbial loop in controlling the organic composition of SSA_super. Conversely, SSA_sub exhibited no apparent relationship with biological activity but tracked closely with surface tension measurements probing the topmost ∼0.2-1.5 μm of the sea surface microlayer. This probing depth is similar to a bubble's film thickness at the ocean surface, suggesting that SSA_sub organic composition may be influenced by the presence of surfactants at the air-sea interface that are transferred into SSA_sub by bubble bursting. Our findings illustrate the substantial impact of seawater dynamics on the pronounced organic compositional differences between SSA_super and SSA_sub and demonstrate that these two SSA populations should be considered separately when assessing their contribution to marine aerosols and climate.

Ocean Aerobiology

Ocean aerobiology is defined here as the study of biological particles of marine origin, including living organisms, present in the atmosphere and their role in ecological, biogeochemical, and climate processes. Hundreds of trillions of microorganisms are exchanged between ocean and atmosphere daily. Within a few days, tropospheric transport potentially disperses microorganisms over continents and between oceans. There is a need to better identify and quantify marine aerobiota, characterize the time spans and distances of marine microorganisms’ atmospheric transport, and determine whether microorganisms acclimate to atmospheric conditions and remain viable, or even grow. Exploring the atmosphere as a microbial habitat is fundamental for understanding the consequences of dispersal and will expand our knowledge of biodiversity, biogeography, and ecosystem connectivity across different marine environments. Marine organic matter is chemically transformed in the atmosphere, including remineralization back to CO₂. The magnitude of these transformations is insignificant in the context of the annual marine carbon cycle, but may be a significant sink for marine recalcitrant organic matter over long (∼10⁴ years) timescales. In addition, organic matter in sea spray aerosol plays a significant role in the Earth’s radiative budget by scattering solar radiation, and indirectly by affecting cloud properties. Marine organic matter is generally a poor source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), but a significant source of ice nucleating particles (INPs), affecting the formation of mixed-phase and ice clouds. This review will show that marine biogenic aerosol plays an impactful, but poorly constrained, role in marine ecosystems, biogeochemical processes, and the Earth’s climate system. Further work is needed to characterize the connectivity and feedbacks between the atmosphere and ocean ecosystems in order to integrate this complexity into Earth System models, facilitating future climate and biogeochemical predictions.

Gaseous mercury re-emission from wet flue gas desulfurization wastewater aeration basins: A review

Wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) simultaneously removes Hg and SO₂ from coal-fired power plant flue gas streams. Hg⁰ re-emission occurs when the dissolved Hg(II) is converted to a volatile form (i.e., Hg⁰) that can be subsequently emitted into the ambient air from WFGD wastewater aeration basins. Others have shown that Hg⁰ re-emission depends on pH, temperature, ligands (Cl, Br, I, F, SO₃^2-, SO₄^2-, NO₃^-, SCN^-, and ClO^-), O₂, minerals (Se and As), and metals (Fe and Cu) in WFGD wastewater. Still others have shown Hg⁰ re-emission restriction via inhibitor addition (adsorbents and precipitators). This is the first review that summarizes the complex and inconsistently reported Hg⁰ re-emission mechanisms, updates misconceptions related to Hg(II) complexation and reduction, and reviews applications of inhibitors that convert aqueous Hg(II) into stable solid forms to prevent gaseous Hg⁰ formation and release.

Characterization of seawater and aerosol particle surfactants using solid phase extraction and mass spectrometry

Surface-active organic molecules (surfactants) may influence the ability of an aerosol particle to act as a cloud condensation nuclei by reducing its surface tension. One source of organic mass in aerosol particles, which may also contain surfactants, is bubble bursting on the sea surface. In order to directly compare these molecules in the ocean and aerosol particles, we developed a method using multiple solid phase extractions and high resolution mass spectrometry to characterize surface active organic molecules in both. This method has extraction efficiencies greater than 85%, 75%, and 60% for anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactant standards, respectively. In this study, we demonstrate the presence of three ionic classes of surface active organics in atmospheric aerosol particles and estuarine water from Skidaway Island, GA. With this extraction method, organic molecules from both estuarine water and atmospheric aerosol particles significantly reduced surface tension of pure water (surface tension depression of ~ 18 mN/m) and had high ratios of hydrogen to carbon (H/C) and low ratios of oxygen to carbon (O/C), indicative of surfactants. While previous work has observed a larger fraction of anionic surface active organics in seawater and marine aerosol particles, here we show cationic surface active organics may make up a large fraction of the total surface active molecules in estuarine water (43%-47%).

A novel synthesis of sulfurized magnetic biochar for aqueous Hg(II) capture as a potential method for environmental remediation in water

Due to public health threats resulting from mercury (Hg) and its distribution in the food chain, global restrictions have been placed on Hg use and emissions. Biochar is a porous, carbonaceous adsorbent typically derived from waste biomass or organic matter, making it an eco-friendly material for aqueous mercury (Hg(II)) control. Functionalization of biochar can improve performance in pollution control applications. In this work, carbonization, magnetization, and sulfurization of biochar were combined into a single heating step to prepare sulfurized magnetic biochar (SMBC) for Hg(II) removal from water. Results indicate that SMBC prepared at 600 °C adsorbed 8.93 mg/g Hg(II), more than materials prepared at 400, 500, 700, 800, and 900 °C. Additionally, Hg(II) adsorption onto SMBC was 53.0% and 11.5% greater than onto magnetic biochar (MBC) and biochar (BC), respectively. Hg(II) adsorption is shown to be favorable in acidic conditions (pH 3.5-5), thermodynamically spontaneous, and endothermic. Adsorption results fit the pseudo-second-order (R² = 0.990 and the sum of squared error (SSE) = 5.382) and external mass transfer (R² = 0.971 and SSE = 9.422) models. The partitioning coefficients were 4.964 mg/g/μM in freshwater, 0.176 mg/g/μM in estuary water, and 0.275 mg/g/μM in seawater, highlighting the importance of salinity in environmental remediation applications. In summary, SMBC can be readily prepared with minimal processing steps. The product is a robust adsorbent for Hg(II), and it can potentially be applied to remediate contaminated water/sediment/soil in the future.

An Overview of Atmospheric Features Over the Western North Atlantic Ocean and North American East Coast - Part 1: Analysis of Aerosols, Gases, and Wet Deposition Chemistry

The Western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) and adjoining East Coast of North America are of great importance for atmospheric research and have been extensively studied for several decades. This broad region exhibits complex meteorological features and a wide range of conditions associated with gas and particulate species from many sources regionally and other continents. As Part 1 of a 2-part paper series, this work characterizes quantities associated with atmospheric chemistry, including gases, aerosols, and wet deposition, by analyzing available satellite observations, ground-based data, model simulations, and reanalysis products. Part 2 provides insight into the atmospheric circulation, boundary layer variability, three-dimensional cloud structure, properties, and precipitation over the WNAO domain. Key results include spatial and seasonal differences in composition along the North American East Coast and over the WNAO associated with varying sources of smoke and dust and meteorological drivers such as temperature, moisture, and precipitation. Spatial and seasonal variations of tropospheric carbon monoxide and ozone highlight different pathways toward the accumulation of these species in the troposphere. Spatial distributions of speciated aerosol optical depth and vertical profiles of aerosol mass mixing ratios show a clear seasonal cycle highlighting the influence of different sources in addition to the impact of intercontinental transport. Analysis of long-term climate model simulations of aerosol species and satellite observations of carbon monoxide confirm that there has been a significant decline in recent decades among anthropogenic constituents owing to regulatory activities.

The surface tension of surfactant-containing, finite volume droplets

Atmospheric aerosol particles cool Earth’s climate by serving as cloud droplet seeds. This cooling effect represents both the single most uncertain and the largest negative radiative forcing. Cloud droplet activation is strongly influenced by aerosol particle surface tension, which in climate models is assumed equivalent to that of pure water. We directly measure the surface tensions of surfactant-coated, high surface-to-volume ratio droplets, demonstrating that their surface tensions are significantly lower than pure water but do not match the surface tension of the solution from which they were produced and depend on finite droplet size. These results suggest surfactants could potentially significantly modify radiative forcing and highlight the need for a better understanding of atmospheric surfactant concentrations and properties.

Surface tension influences the fraction of atmospheric particles that become cloud droplets. Although surfactants are an important component of aerosol mass, the surface tension of activating aerosol particles is still unresolved, with most climate models assuming activating particles have a surface tension equal to that of water. By studying picoliter droplet coalescence, we demonstrate that surfactants can significantly reduce the surface tension of finite-sized droplets below the value for water, consistent with recent field measurements. Significantly, this surface tension reduction is droplet size-dependent and does not correspond exactly to the macroscopic solution value. A fully independent monolayer partitioning model confirms the observed finite-size-dependent surface tension arises from the high surface-to-volume ratio in finite-sized droplets and enables predictions of aerosol hygroscopic growth. This model, constrained by the laboratory measurements, is consistent with a reduction in critical supersaturation for activation, potentially substantially increasing cloud droplet number concentration and modifying radiative cooling relative to current estimates assuming a water surface tension. The results highlight the need for improved constraints on the identities, properties, and concentrations of atmospheric aerosol surfactants in multiple environments and are broadly applicable to any discipline where finite volume effects are operative, such as studies of the competition between reaction rates within the bulk and at the surface of confined volumes and explorations of the influence of surfactants on dried particle morphology from spray driers.

Atmospheric Research Over the Western North Atlantic Ocean Region and North American East Coast: A Review of Past Work and Challenges Ahead

Decades of atmospheric research have focused on the Western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) region because of its unique location that offers accessibility for airborne and ship measurements, gradients in important atmospheric parameters, and a range of meteorological regimes leading to diverse conditions that are poorly understood. This work reviews these scientific investigations for the WNAO region, including the East Coast of North America and the island of Bermuda. Over 50 field campaigns and long-term monitoring programs, in addition to 715 peer-reviewed publications between 1946 and 2019 have provided a firm foundation of knowledge for these areas. Of particular importance in this region has been extensive work at the island of Bermuda that is host to important time series records of oceanic and atmospheric variables. Our review categorizes WNAO atmospheric research into eight major categories, with some studies fitting into multiple categories (relative %): Aerosols (25%), Gases (24%), Development/Validation of Techniques, Models, and Retrievals (18%), Meteorology and Transport (9%), Air-Sea Interactions (8%), Clouds/Storms (8%), Atmospheric Deposition (7%), and Aerosol-Cloud Interactions (2%). Recommendations for future research are provided in the categories highlighted above.

Effects of surface tension time-evolution for CCN activation of a complex organic surfactant

The physical processes and time scales underlying the evolution of surface tension in atmospheric solution droplets are largely unaccounted for in present models describing cloud droplet formation. Adsorption of surface-active molecules at the surface of a solution droplet depresses the droplet surface tension but also depletes solute from the droplet bulk, which have opposing and sometimes canceling effects in cloud droplet formation. In this work, we study the effect of time-evolving surface tension for cloud droplet activation of particles composed of Nordic Aquatic Fulvic Acid (NAFA) mixed with sodium chloride (NaCl). We model the formation of cloud droplets using Köhler theory with surface tension depression and bulk/surface partitioning evaluated from two different thermodynamic surface models. Continuous ternary parameterizations were constructed from surface tension measurements of macroscopic droplets at different time steps after the formation of a droplet surface. The predicted results are compared to previous measurements of mixed NAFA-NaCl cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity and a bulk solution model that does not take the NAFA bulk/surface partitioning equilibrium into account. Whereas the bulk model shows a trend in cloud droplet formation following that of macroscopic surface tension depression with time, the variation with time essentially disappears when bulk/surface partitioning is taken explicitly into account during droplet activation. For all equilibrium time steps considered, the effect of surface tension depression in the NAFA-NaCl system is counteracted by the depletion of solute from the finite-sized droplet bulk phase. Our study highlights that a comprehensive data set is necessary to obtain continuous parameterizations of surface tension and other solution properties required to fully account for the bulk/surface partitioning in growing droplets. To our knowledge, no similar data set currently exists for other aqueous organic systems of atmospheric interest. Additional work is necessary to deconvolve the effects of bulk/surface partitioning in the context of time-evolution on cloud droplet activation and to determine whether the results presented here can be further generalized.