Secondary organic aerosol formation from toluene in an atmospheric hydrocarbon mixture: Water and particle seed effects

Atmospherically relevant secondary organic aerosol (SOA) concentrations from toluene, in an urban hydrocarbon environment, with oxides of nitrogen in natural sunlight, were studied in a large outdoor chamber with different initial humidity and types of initial seed aerosols. Ammonium sulfate particles (38 μg m−3) in the presence of an atmospheric hydrocarbon mixture and NOx in sunlight under a dry atmosphere (%RH = 6 to 10%) show reduced SOA formation when compared to similar gas phase conditions with lower ammonium sulfate (7 μg m−3) and higher relative humidities (%RH 40 to 90%). No post particle nucleation (particles in the 6 to 10 nm range) was observed in either seeded system. When initial background particles levels were below 0.5 μg m−3 particle nucleation was observed. A new condensed aromatic kinetic chemical mechanism was developed to simulate experimental data. A particle water phase was highly related to SOA formation. Reasonable fits to the gas and total SOA concentrations emphasize the important impact of different initial particle seed levels and particle phase water when simulating SOA formation from aromatic compounds like toluene.

► Illustrates the extraordinary impact of particle phase water and initial particle seed concentrations on aromatic SOA.
► Changing RH between 90 and 10% can vary SOA yields by a factor of 2–7.
► Uses outdoor chamber data to test a newly developed aromatic gas-particle kinetics model.
► First study to investigate aromatic SOA within the context of an atmospheric urban hydrocarbon mixture.