Dataset for: Bubble bursting as an aerosol generation mechanism during an oil spill in the deep-sea environment: Laboratory experimental demonstration of the transport pathway

Dataset supporting the publicaton Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2014,16, 65-73 DOI: 10.1039/C3EM00390F. This data set contains excel, image, and pdf files which support graphs and quantitative data reported in aforementioned paper in Dataset title field. It includes characteristic information (bubble size distribution, particle size distribution, and salt ejection rates) of the aerosolization reactor which is used to simulate whitecaps and understand the aerosol generation via the bubble bursting mechanism. Our work addresses the need for evaluating the pathway of aerosolization and in the following we present our results concerning the ejection of alkanes from crude oil, representing 10 % (w/w) of the Oil. In addition we also present observations with regard to the influence of the dispersant Corexit 9500A on the efficacy of aerosol generation. We tested the ejection of alkanes originating from non-weathered crude oil by injectingthe crude oil slowly into the stream of bubbles. The injection flow rate varied stepwise from 1 µL min-1 to 100 µL min-1 to approximate the capacity of the aerosolization reactor to eject material. Two series of experiments were conducted, one with only the surrogate oil provided by the BP and another with 1% Corexit 9500A and the surrogate oil. We measured the ejection rate of alkanes by using ethyl acetate as bubbler solvent. The ethyl acetate was dried over sodium sulfate and analyzed with a gas chromatograph with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The alkane content of the particulate matter was assessed by collecting particulate matter (PM) for 15 min at 50 µL min-1 oil flow rate and dissolving the alkanes off the aluminum target with a mixture of ethyl acetate and deionized water. The alkane concentration of the ethyl acetate phase was determined after drying over anhydrous sodium sulfate via GC-MS. Measuring the conductivity of the aqueous phase and comparing to sodium chloride solutions of known concentration quantified the amount of the salt collected. The application of dispersant facilitates the aerosolization and evaporation predominantly by enhancing the dispersion of the oil in the water column and improves therefore the flotation capacity of the bubbles. This aerosolization of oil spill matter via bursting bubbles of white caps might be of particular importance for the fate of semi-volatile organic compounds as dissolution, microbial degradation, and evaporation are negligible for these compounds.