Articles | Volume 9, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-8351-2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-8351-2009
03 Nov 2009
 | 03 Nov 2009

Toward a general parameterization of N2O5 reactivity on aqueous particles: the competing effects of particle liquid water, nitrate and chloride

T. H. Bertram and J. A. Thornton

Abstract. The heterogeneous reaction of N2O5 on mixed organic-inorganic aerosol particles was investigated using an entrained aerosol flow tube coupled to a custom-built chemical ionization mass spectrometer. Laboratory results on aqueous particles confirm a strong dependence of the reactive uptake coefficient (γ) on particle liquid water, for particle water concentrations below 15 M, and the molar ratio of particle water to nitrate. Measurements of γ (N2O5) on mixed chloride-nitrate particles indicate that the presence of trace chloride can negate the suppression of γ(N2O5) at high nitrate loadings with implications for polluted coastal regions. These results are used to construct a new parameterization for γ (N2O5), that when coupled to an aerosol thermodynamics model, can be used within regional and/or global chemical transport models.

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