Secondary organic aerosol formation from primary aliphatic amines with NO<sub>3</sub> radical

Abstract

Abstract. Primary aliphatic amines are an important class of nitrogen containing compounds emitted from automobiles, waste treatment facilities and agricultural animal operations. A series of experiments conducted at the UC-Riverside/CE-CERT Environmental Chamber is presented in which oxidation of methylamine, ethylamine, propylamine, and butylamine with O 3 and NO 3 have been investigated. Very little aerosol formation is observed in the presence of O 3 only. However, after addition of NO, and by extension NO 3 , large aerosol mass yields (∼44% for butylamine) are seen. Aerosol generated was determined to be organic in nature due to the small fraction of NO and NO 2 in the total signal (<1% for all amines tested) as detected by an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). We propose a reaction mechanism between carbonyl containing species and the parent amine leading to formation of particulate imine products. These findings can have significant impacts on rural communities with elevated nighttime PM loadings, when significant levels of NO 3 exist.

Secondary organic aerosol formation from the photooxidation of isoprene, 1,3-butadiene, and 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene under high NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; conditions

“…Table 1 shows the experimental conditions of this study. All experiments were conducted using the UCR CE-CERT 90-m 3 environmental chamber (Carter et al, 2005;Malloy et al, 2009;Qi et al, 2010). Two Teflon 90-m 3 reactors located in a 450-m 3 enclosure were ventilated by dry purified air (dew point less than 233 K).…”

Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity of aliphatic amine secondary aerosol

“…Particle phase amines have been repeatedly detected in field campaigns at different locations (summarized by Ge et al, 2011a). Recent chamber studies have confirmed both acid-base reactions and oxidation processes can lead to the formation of amine secondary aerosol (Silva et al, 2008;Murphy et al, 2007;Malloy et al, 2009b). Amines may also enhance or affect particle nucleation and the growth of nucleated particle to CCN-relevant sizes (Loukonen et al, 2010;Berndt et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2010a, b).…”

The effect of trimethylamine on atmospheric nucleation involving H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;SO&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;

“…Like NH 3 , amines are removed from the atmosphere by reactions with common atmospheric acids such as H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 . But unlike NH 3 , amines are also removed efficiently through rapid oxidation reactions with atmospheric oxidants, such as OH, O 3 , and NO 3 (FinlaysonPitts and Pitts, 2000;Ge et al, 2010a, b;Malloy et al, 2009;Murphy, 2007;Pitts Jr. et al, 1978). These similarities in sources and physical and chemical properties between NH 3 and amines, and the fact that they both have been detected in atmospheric nanoparticles (Makela et al, 2001;Smith et al, 2008), make them ideal potential precursors for aerosol nucleation involving H 2 SO 4 .…”