Nighttime atmospheric oxidation for real organic films on atmospheric aerosol using real samples from the atmosphere

Oxidation of the organic films on atmospheric aerosol for climate change studies has previously concentrated on daytime oxidants (OH and O3). The behavior of real organic films extracted from the atmosphere at air-water interface of aerosol and cloud droplets with the night-time oxidant (NO3 radical) has not been studied. Our proposed experiment will characterise (film thickness) and study the reactivity of the film (kinetics) to atmospheric oxidation (NO3 radical) of surface-active films extracted from these samples. These precious samples are collected and need to be studied by a high flux Neutron reflectometer. If the oxidation kinetics demonstrate a film lifetime (with respect to oxidation by night-time NO3 radical) of less than 4 days the reaction must be included in atmospheric process modelling. The work supports a NERC grant between ISIS/RHUL and a new joint funded ISIS/RHUL PhD studentship.

在气候变化研究中，大气气溶胶上有机膜的氧化作用此前主要聚焦于日间氧化剂（OH和O3）。而对于从大气中提取的真实有机膜，在气溶胶与云滴的气-水界面下与夜间氧化剂（NO3自由基）的相互作用行为，目前尚未得到研究。我们拟开展的实验将对从这些样本中提取的表面活性膜进行表征（膜厚度），并研究其在大气氧化（NO3自由基）作用下的反应性（动力学）。这些珍贵样本已完成采集，需借助高通量中子反射仪开展研究。若氧化动力学结果显示，膜在夜间NO3自由基氧化作用下的寿命小于4天，则该反应需纳入大气过程建模中。本研究工作将为ISIS与RHUL合作的NERC资助项目，以及双方新设立的联合资助博士研究生项目提供支持。