Articles | Volume 25, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1917-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1917-2025
Measurement report
 | 
12 Feb 2025
Measurement report |  | 12 Feb 2025

Measurement report: Brown carbon aerosol in rural Germany – sources, chemistry, and diurnal variations

Feng Jiang, Harald Saathoff, Uzoamaka Ezenobi, Junwei Song, Hengheng Zhang, Linyu Gao, and Thomas Leisner

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Cited articles

Andreae, M. O. and Gelencsér, A.: Black carbon or brown carbon? The nature of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 3131–3148, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-6-3131-2006, 2006. 
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Chen, Q. C., Chen, Q., Hua, X. Y., Guan, D. J., and Chang, T.: Gas-phase brown carbon: Absorbance and chromophore types, Atmos. Environ., 264, 118646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118646, 2021. 
Cheng, X., Chen, Q., Li, Y., Huang, G., Liu, Y., Lu, S., Zheng, Y., Qiu, W., Lu, K., Qiu, X., Bianchi, F., Yan, C., Yuan, B., Shao, M., Wang, Z., Canagaratna, M. R., Zhu, T., Wu, Y., and Zeng, L.: Secondary Production of Gaseous Nitrated Phenols in Polluted Urban Environments, Environ. Sci. Technol., 55, 4410–4419, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c07988, 2021. 
Daumit, K. E., Kessler, S. H., and Kroll, J. H.: Average chemical properties and potential formation pathways of highly oxidized organic aerosol, Faraday Discuss., 165, 181–202, https://doi.org/10.1039/c3fd00045a, 2013. 
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Short summary
The chemical composition of brown carbon in the particle and gas phase was determined by mass spectrometry. BrC in the gas phase was mainly controlled by secondary formation and particle-to-gas partitioning. BrC in the particle phase was mainly from secondary formation. This work helps to get a better understanding of diurnal variations and the sources of brown carbon aerosol at a rural location in central Europe.
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