Adsorption of Gas-Phase Phenanthrene on Atmospheric Water and Ice Films

Temperature dependence of the rain-gas and snow-gas partition coefficients for nearly a thousand chemicals

Compared to the particle-gas partition coefficients (KPG), the rain-gas (KRG) and snow-gas (KSG) partition coefficients are also essential in studying the environmental behavior and fate of chemicals in the atmosphere. While the temperature dependence for the KPG have been extensively studied, the study for KRG and KSG are still lacking. Adsorption coefficients between water surface-air (KIA) and snow surface-air (KJA), as well as partition coefficients between water-air (KWA) and octanol-air (KOA) are vital in calculating KRG and KSG. These four basic adsorption and partition coefficients are also temperature-dependent, given by the well-known two-parameters Antoine equation logKXY = AXY + BXY/T, where KXY is the adsorption or partition coefficients, AXY and BXY are Antoine parameters (XY stand for IA, JA, WA, and OA), and T is the temperature in Kelvin. In this study, the parameters AXY and BXY are calculated for 943 chemicals, and logKXY can be estimated at any ambient temperature for these chemicals using these Antoine parameters. The results are evaluated by comparing these data with published experimental and modeled data, and the results show reasonable accuracy. Based on these coefficients, temperature-dependence of logKRG and logKSG is studied. It is found that both logKRG and logKSG are linearly related to 1/T, and Antoine parameters for logKRG and logKSG are also estimated. Distributions of the 943 chemicals in the atmospheric phases (gas, particle, and rain/snow), are illustrated in a Chemical Space Map. The findings reveal that, at environmental temperatures and precipitation days, the dominant state for the majority of chemicals is the gaseous phase. All the AXY and BXY values for logKSG, logKRG, and basic adsorption and partition coefficients, both modeled by this study and collected from published work, are systematically organized into an accessible dataset for public utilization.

Review of air-water interface adsorption and reactions between trace gaseous organic and oxidant compounds

The surface chemistry of the atmospheric aerosol through homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic reactions in the bulk water and the air-water surface is reviewed. Water plays a critical role as a substrate or an actual reactant in atmospheric reactions. The atmospheric aerosol differs in shape and surface area. Many gaseous reactive species and oxidants react at the air-water surface. Different thermodynamic methods to estimate partitioning coefficients are explored. The Gibbs free energy is reduced when reactant gaseous species react with oxidant at the air-water surface; this phenomenon is explained using examples. Langmuir-Hinshelwood reaction mechanism to quantify the heterogeneous reaction rate at the air-water interface is discussed. Critical comparisons of various sampling techniques used to analyze adsorption and reaction at the water surface are presented. The heterogeneous reaction rate at the air-water surface is significantly higher than in the bulk water phase due to a cage effect, higher rate of reactions, and lower Gibbs free energy of adsorption.

Adsorption of PAHs on interstellar ice viewed by classical molecular dynamics

The present work represents a complete description of PAH–ice interaction in the ground electronic state and at low temperature, providing the binding energies and barrier heights necessary to the ongoing improvement of astrochemical models.

Seasonal variation and potential source regions of PM2.5-bound PAHs in the megacity Beijing, China: Impact of regional transport

Based on the 12-hour PM_2.5 samples collected in an urban site of Beijing, sixteen PM_2.5-bound Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured to investigate the characteristics and potential source regions of particulate PAHs in Beijing. The study period included the summer period in July-August 2014, the APEC source control period during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in the first half of November 2014, and the heating period in the second half of November 2014. Compared to PM_2.5, sum of 16 PM_2.5-bound PAHs exhibited more significant seasonal variation with the winter concentration largely exceeding the summer concentration. Temperature appeared to be the most crucial meteorological factor during the summer and heating periods, while PM_2.5-bound PAHs showed stronger correlation with relative humidity and wind speed during the APEC source control period. Residential heating significantly increased the concentrations of higher-ring-number (≥4) PAHs measured in PM_2.5 fraction. Potential source contribution function (PSCF) and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis as well as the (3 + 4) ring/(5 + 6) ring PAH ratio analysis revealed the seasonal difference in the potential source area of PM_2.5-bound PAHs in Beijing. Southern Hebei was the most likely potential source area in the cold season. Using black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) as the PAH tracers, regional residential, transportation and industry emissions all contributed to the PAH pollution in Beijing.

Bubble bursting as an aerosol generation mechanism during an oil spill in the deep-sea environment: molecular dynamics simulations of oil alkanes and dispersants in atmospheric air/salt water interfaces

Potential of mean force (PMF) calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to investigate the properties of oil n-alkanes [i.e., n-pentadecane (C15), n-icosane (C20) and n-triacontane (C30)], as well as several surfactant species [i.e., the standard anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and three model dispersants similar to the Tween and Span species present in Corexit 9500A] at air/salt water interfaces. This study was motivated by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, and our simulation results show that, from the thermodynamic point of view, the n-alkanes and the model dispersants have a strong preference to remain at the air/salt water interface, as indicated by the presence of deep free energy minima at these interfaces. The free energy minimum of these n-alkanes becomes deeper as their chain length increases, and as the concentration of surfactant species at the interface increases. The n-alkanes tend to adopt a flat orientation and form aggregates at the bare air/salt water interface. When this interface is coated with surfactants, the n-alkanes tend to adopt more tilted orientations with respect to the vector normal to the interface. These simulation results are consistent with the experimental findings reported in the accompanying paper [Ehrenhauser et al., Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts 2013, in press, (DOI: 10.1039/c3em00390f)]. The fact that these long-chain n-alkanes show a strong thermodynamic preference to remain at the air/salt water interfaces, especially if these interfaces are coated with surfactants, makes these species very likely to adsorb at the surface of bubbles or droplets and be ejected to the atmosphere by sea surface processes such as whitecaps (breaking waves) and bubble bursting. Finally, the experimental finding that more oil hydrocarbons are ejected when Corexit 9500A is present in the system is consistent with the deeper free energy minima observed for the n-alkanes at the air/salt water interface at increasing concentrations of surfactant species.

Rate acceleration of the heterogeneous reaction of ozone with a model alkene at the air-ice interface at low temperatures

The kinetics of the ozonation reaction of 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE) on the surface of ice grains (also called "artificial snow"), produced by shock-freezing of DPE aqueous solutions or DPE vapor-deposition on pure ice grains, was studied in the temperature range of 268 to 188 K. A remarkable and unexpected increase in the apparent ozonation rates with decreasing temperature was evaluated using the Langmuir-Hinshelwood and Eley-Rideal kinetic models, and by estimating the apparent specific surface area of the ice grains. We suggest that an increase of the number of surface reactive sites, and possibly higher ozone uptake coefficients are responsible for the apparent rate acceleration of DPE ozonation at the air-ice interface at lower temperatures. The increasing number of reactive sites is probably related to the fact that organic molecules are displaced more to the top of a disordered interface (or quasi-liquid) layer on the ice surface, which makes them more accessible to the gas-phase reactants. The effect of NaCl as a cocontaminant on ozonation rates was also investigated. The environmental implications of this phenomenon for natural ice/snow are discussed. DPE was selected as an example of environmentally relevant species which can react with ozone. For typical atmospheric ozone concentrations in polar areas (20 ppbv), we estimated that its half-life on the ice surface would decrease from ∼5 days at 258 K to ∼13 h at 188 K at submonolayer DPE loadings.

Molecular modeling of the green leaf volatile methyl salicylate on atmospheric air/water interfaces

Methyl salicylate (MeSA) is a green leaf volatile (GLV) compound that is emitted in significant amounts by plants, especially when they are under stress conditions. GLVs can then undergo chemical reactions with atmospheric oxidants, yielding compounds that contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). We investigated the adsorption of MeSA on atmospheric air/water interfaces at 298 K using thermodynamic integration (TI), potential of mean force (PMF) calculations, and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our molecular models can reproduce experimental results of the 1-octanol/water partition coefficient of MeSA. A deep free energy minimum was found for MeSA at the air/water interface, which is mainly driven by energetic interactions between MeSA and water. At the interface, the oxygenated groups in MeSA tend to point toward the water side of the interface, with the aromatic group of MeSA lying farther away from water. Increases in the concentrations of MeSA lead to reductions in the height of the peaks in the MeSA-MeSA g(r) functions, a slowing down of the dynamics of both MeSA and water at the interface, and a reduction in the interfacial surface tension. Our results indicate that MeSA has a strong thermodynamic preference to remain at the air/water interface, and thus chemical reactions with atmospheric oxidants are more likely to take place at this interface, rather than in the water phase of atmospheric water droplets or in the gas phase.