| Title: | Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation Potential from Ambient Air in Beijing: Effects of Atmospheric Oxidation Capacity at Different Pollution Levels |
| Author(s): | Liu J; Chu B; Chen T; Zhong C; Liu C; Ma Q; Ma J; Zhang P; He H; |
| Address: | "State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China. School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Panzhihua University, Panzhihua 617000, China" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1520-5851 (Electronic) 0013-936X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) plays a critical role in sustained haze pollution in megacities. Traditional observation of atmospheric aerosols usually analyzes the ambient organic aerosol (OA) but neglects the SOA formation potential (SOAFP) of precursors remaining in ambient air. Knowledge on SOAFP is still limited, especially in megacities suffering from frequent haze. In this study, the SOAFP of ambient air in urban Beijing was characterized at different pollution levels based on a two-year field observation using an oxidation flow reactor (OFR) system. Both OA and SOAFP increased as a function of ambient pollution level, in which increasing concentrations of precursor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and decreasing atmospheric oxidation capacity were found to be the two main influencing factors. To address the role of the atmospheric oxidation capacity in SOAFP, a relative OA enhancement ratio (ER(OA) = 1 + SOAFP/OA) and the elemental composition of the OA were investigated in this study. The results indicated that the atmospheric oxidation capacity was weakened and resulted in higher SOAFP on more polluted days. The relationship found between SOAFP and the atmospheric oxidation capacity could be helpful in understanding changes in SOA pollution with improving air quality in the megacities of developing countries" |
| Keywords: | Aerosols/analysis *Air Pollutants/analysis *Air Pollution Beijing *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis Ofr SOA formation potential atmospheric oxidation capacity pollution level; |
| Notes: | "MedlineLiu, Jun Chu, Biwu Chen, Tianzeng Zhong, Cheng Liu, Changgeng Ma, Qingxin Ma, Jinzhu Zhang, Peng He, Hong eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2021/03/19 Environ Sci Technol. 2021 Apr 20; 55(8):4565-4572. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c00890. Epub 2021 Mar 18" |
