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The energy landscape is changing worldwide, with a drastic reduction in sulfur dioxide (precursor to sulfuric acid, H2SO4) emitted from fossil fuel combustion. As a result, acid-base chemistry leading to new particle formation (NPF) from sulfuric acid is decreasing. At the same time, photooxidation of biogenic organosulfur compounds leading to the formation of H2SO4 and methanesulfonic acid (MSA) is expected to become more important. Aqueous solutions of alkanolamines have been proposed as carbon capture technology media to store carbon dioxide from stack plumes before release into the atmosphere. It is therefore expected that some of the alkanolamines will be released, making it critical to understand their atmospheric fates including their role in new particle formation and growth. We expanded our experimental studies of nucleation from the reaction of MSA with simple amines to the multifunctional alkanolamines, including mononethanolamine (HO(CH2)2NH2; MEA) and 4-aminobutanol (HO(CH2)4NH2; 4AB). Experiments were performed in a 1-m borosilicate flow reactor under dry conditions as well as in presence of water. These two systems were shown to produce sub-10 nm particles with MSA extremely efficiently. Surprisingly, the presence of water did not enhance NPF, in contrast to the drastic effect water had on small alkylamine reactions with MSA. This is likely due to the fact that MEA and 4AB have an -OH group that provides additional H-bond interactions within the cluster. Sampling of the chemical composition of these small nanoparticles with high resolution and high transmission was possible down to 3-4 nm using a novel high-flow differential mobility analyzer (half-mini DMA) interfaced to a thermal chemical ionization mass spectrometer (TDCIMS). There was no size dependence for the acid-to-base molar ratio (1:1) for either amine. Integration of these data with preliminary results obtained for a simple C4 alkylamine (butylamine) and a C4 diamine (putrescine) will be discussed in the context of developing a molecular structure-reactivity scheme for new particle formation from MSA and amines of varying structures.
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The missing base molecules in atmospheric acid–base nucleation
Abstract Transformation of low-volatility gaseous precursors to new particles affects aerosol number concentration, cloud formation and hence the climate. The clustering of acid and base molecules is a major mechanism driving fast nucleation and initial growth of new particles in the atmosphere. However, the acid–base cluster composition, measured using state-of-the-art mass spectrometers, cannot explain the measured high formation rate of new particles. Here we present strong evidence for the existence of base molecules such as amines in the smallest atmospheric sulfuric acid clusters prior to their detection by mass spectrometers. We demonstrate that forming (H2SO4)1(amine)1 is the rate-limiting step in atmospheric H2SO4-amine nucleation and the uptake of (H2SO4)1(amine)1 is a major pathway for the initial growth of H2SO4 clusters. The proposed mechanism is very consistent with measured new particle formation in urban Beijing, in which dimethylamine is the key base for H2SO4 nucleation while other bases such as ammonia may contribute to the growth of larger clusters. Our findings further underline the fact that strong amines, even at low concentrations and when undetected in the smallest clusters, can be crucial to particle formation in the planetary boundary layer.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2132089
- PAR ID:
- 10372430
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- National Science Review
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2095-5138
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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