Effects of Inorganic Seeds on Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) Formation

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosol has significant influences on human health (Kaiser, 2005), visibility degradation (Cheng et al., 2011), and climate change (Satheesh and Moorthy, 2005). It was found that organic aerosols (OA) was the most abundant component of atmospheric aerosol (He et al., 2001) and more than 50% of the total OA are secondary organic aerosols (SOA) (Duan et al., 2005). SOA are produced from the oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) followed by gas-particle partitioning of the semivolatile organic products. Among the various VOCs, aromatic hydrocarbons are one type of SOA precursors which have drawn the most attention due to their abundance in the air and high SOA contribution to urban atmospheres (Lewandowski et al., 2008). Toluene and m-xylene are the two of the most abundant aromatic hydrocarbon species.