Effect of chemical aging of aqueous organic aerosols on the rate of their steady-state nucleation

We present the steady-state solution of the kinetic equation for the size and composition distribution of an ensemble of aqueous organic droplets, evolving via nucleation and concomitant chemical aging. The partial differential equation of second order for the temporal evolution of this distribution can be reduced to the canonical form of the multidimensional Fokker-Planck equation, which can be solved analytically by using the method of complete separation of variables. Its solution for the steady-state process provides the stationary distribution of droplets in the vicinity of the saddle point of the free-energy surface as well as the stationary nucleation rate in the form of the product "kinetic (Zeldovich) factor × normalization factor × exp(-free energy of nucleus formation)". Our numerical evaluations for the formation of aqueous organic aerosols in the air containing the vapors of water, 2-methylglyceric acid, and 3-methyl-4 -hydroxy-benzoic acid, as well as typical atmospheric gaseous species, indicate that the steady-state nucleation rate of such aerosols can be significantly enhanced by their concomitant chemical aging. Thus, one can expect that the application of our approach to the formation and evolution of atmospheric aqueous organic aerosols (via concurrent nucleation and chemical aging) will make aerosol models more adequate and may, once implemented in climate models, improve their forecasting accuracy.

Formation and evolution of aqueous organic aerosols via concurrent condensation and chemical aging

We review recent results on the formation and evolution of aqueous organic aerosols via concurrent nucleation/condensation and chemical aging processes obtained mostly using the formalism of classical nucleation theory In this framework, an aqueous organic aerosol was modeled as a spherical particle of liquid solution of water and hydrophilic and hydrophobic condensable organic compounds; besides these compounds, the surrounding air contained some chemically reactive, non-condensable species. Hydrophobic organic molecules on the aerosol surface can be processed by chemical reactions with some atmospheric species; this affects the hygroscopicity of the aerosol and hence its ability to become a cloud droplet. Such processing is most probably triggered by atmospheric hydroxyl radicals that abstract hydrogen atoms from surfactant molecules located on the aerosol surface (first step), resulting radicals being quickly oxidized by ubiquitous atmospheric oxygen molecules to produce surface-bound peroxyl radicals (second step). These two reactions play a crucial role in the enhancement of the Köhler activation of the aerosol. Taking them and a third reaction (next in the multistep chain of relevant heterogeneous reactions) into account, one can derive an explicit expression for the free energy of formation of a four-component aqueous droplet on a ternary aqueous organic aerosol as a function of four independent variables of state of a droplet. This approach was also applied to study a large subset of primary marine aerosols which can be initially treated using an "inverted micelle" model whereof the core consists of aqueous "salt" solution. Numerical evaluations suggest that the formation of cloud droplets on such (both aqueous hydrophilic/hydrophobic organic and marine) aerosols is most likely to occur via Köhler activation rather than via nucleation. The models allow one to determine the threshold parameters necessary for the Köhler activation of such aerosols. Furthermore, heterogeneous chemical reactions involved in the chemical aging of aerosols are most likely exothermic. Due to the release of the enthalpy of these reactions, the temperature of an aerosol particle during its chemical aging may become greater than the ambient (air) temperature. The analysis of the characteristic timescales of four most important processes involved suggests that this effect may play a significant impeding role in the formation of an ensemble of aqueous secondary organic aerosols via nucleation and, hence, must be taken into account in atmospheric aerosol and global climate models.

Thermodynamics of water condensation on a primary marine aerosol coated by surfactant organic molecules

A large subset of primary marine aerosols can be initially (immediately upon formation) treated using an "inverted micelle" model. We study the thermodynamics of heterogeneous water condensation on such a marine aerosol. Its hydrophobic organic coating can be processed by chemical reactions with atmospheric species; this enables the marine aerosol to serve as a nucleating center for water condensation. The most probable pathway of such "aging" involves atmospheric hydroxyl radicals that abstract hydrogen atoms from organic molecules coating the aerosol (first step), the resulting radicals being quickly oxidized by ubiquitous atmospheric oxygen molecules to produce surface-bound peroxyl radicals (second step). Taking these two reactions into account, we derive an expression for the free energy of formation of an aqueous droplet on a marine aerosol. The model is illustrated by numerical calculations. The results suggest that the formation of aqueous droplets on marine aerosols is most likely to occur via Köhler activation rather than via nucleation. The model allows one to determine the threshold parameters necessary for the Köhler activation of such aerosols. Numerical results also corroborate previous suggestions that one can omit some chemical species of aerosols (and other details of their chemical composition) in investigating aerosol effects on climate.

Heterogeneous nucleation in multi-component vapor on a partially wettable charged conducting particle. I. Formulation of general equations: electrical surface and line excess quantities

Thermodynamics is applied to formulate general equations for internal energies and grand potential for a system consisting of a dielectric liquid nucleus of a new phase on a charged insoluble conducting sphere within a uniform macroscopic one- or multicomponent mother phase. The currently available model for ion-induced nucleation assumes complete spherical symmetry of the system, implying that the seed ion is immediately surrounded by the condensing liquid from all sides. We take a step further and treat more realistic geometries, where a cap-shaped liquid cluster forms on the surface of the seed particle. To take into account spontaneous polarization of surface layer molecules we introduce the electrical surface and line excess quantities.