Important Oxidants and Their Impact on the Environmental Effects of Aerosols

Abstract

Oxidants are central species in the atmosphere, where they not only determine secondary particle formation but also impact human health and climate change. In general, they are unstable, highly reactive, and recyclable and have been studied in field observations, laboratory studies, and model simulations. The most widely investigated oxidants, such as OH radicals, O 3 , and Cl atom, HONO, NO 3 , N 2 O 5 , and Criegee Intermediates (CIs) have attracted more attention recently. Furthermore, secondary particles formed in the oxidations processes impact the particle physicochemical properties, such as hygroscopicity and optical properties and therefore impact the atmospheric radiation balance. Therefore, the newest investigation results of important oxidants (HONO, NO 3 , N 2 O 5 , and CIs) are reviewed in this manuscript, and the environmental effects of secondary particles formed through corresponding oxidation processes are also stated. Furthermore, some perspectives are further discussed in the article.

Elucidating the critical oligomeric steps in secondary organic aerosol and brown carbon formation

“…Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from biogenic and anthropogenic sources are of particular importance due to their chemical reactivity and high abundance in the atmosphere (Piccot, 1992;Acosta Navarro et al, 2014). Gas-phase reactions of VOCs associated with photochemical oxidant cycles generally produce secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particle mass and increase tropospheric ozone concentration (Lim et al, 2005;Ziemann and Atkinson, 2012;Ge et al, 2021;Ma et al, 2021). Hence, the emission of VOCs is a key process in controlling the formation and growth of new particles over continental regions.…”

Emerging investigator series: surfactants, films, and coatings on atmospheric aerosol particles: a review

“…Dinitrogen pentoxide (N 2 O 5 ) is an important reservoir of reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere that has long served as a model system for studying heterogeneous reactions. 45,351,354 Sullivan and co-workers have published a series of studies on gas-phase N 2 O 5 uptake by BBA particles. [355][356][357][358] Notably, organic coatings did not constrain reactive uptake of N 2 O 5 at high RH by BBA particles generated from chloride-rich fuels like black needlerush.…”

Amplified role of potential HONO sources in O<sub>3</sub> formation in North China Plain during autumn haze aggravating processes

“…Although 40 years have passed since the first detection of HONO in the atmosphere (Perner and Platt, 1979), the sources of HONO (especially daytime) and the dynamic parameters of HONO formation mechanisms are still not well understood (Ge et al, 2021). Current air quality models with the default gas-phase reaction (the reverse reaction of Reaction R1) always significantly underestimate HONO observations, resulting in low atmospheric oxidation capacity and in underestimation of secondary pollutants such as ozone (O 3 ) (Li et al, 2010(Li et al, , 2011Sarwar et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2016Zhang et al, , 2019a.…”