Articles | Volume 13, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3227-2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3227-2013
Research article
 | 
18 Mar 2013
Research article |  | 18 Mar 2013

Photo-oxidation of pinonaldehyde at low NOx: from chemistry to organic aerosol formation

H. J. Chacon-Madrid, K. M. Henry, and N. M. Donahue

Abstract. Pinonaldehyde oxidation by OH radicals under low-NOx conditions produces significant secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass yields. Under concurrent UV illumination, mass yields are lower than high-NOx yields published earlier by our group. However, when OH radicals are produced via dark ozonolysis the SOA mass yields are comparable at high and low NOx. Because pinonaldehyde is a major first-generation gas-phase product of α-pinene oxidation by either ozone or OH radicals, its potential to form SOA serves as a molecular counterpoint to bulk SOA aging experiments involving SOA formed from α-pinene. Both the general tendency for aging reactions to produce more SOA and the sensitivity of the low-NOx products to UV photolysis observed in the bulk clearly occur for this single species as well. Photochemical oxidation of pinonaldehye and analogous first-generation terpene oxidation products are potentially a significant source of additional SOA in biogenically influenced air masses.

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