Effect of particle water on ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation from benzene-NO2-NaCl irradiations

Ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are important pollutants in the urban atmosphere. Benzene is one of the most important aromatic species in urban air, which could produce O3 and SOA in the presence of NOx (x = 1, 2) and UV light. A series of experiments was carried out to study the effect of particle water on O3 and SOA formation from benzene under various humid conditions in an indoor smog chamber. The results show that the peak O3 concentrations decreased with the increase of RH or the mass concentration of liquid NaCl particles. The peak O3 concentration reduced by 30% as RH increased from 9% to 87% with the similar initial concentrations of NaCl (about 46 μg m−3), and decreased by 10% as the initial NaCl concentrations increased from 36.0 μg m−3 to 152.1 μg m−3 at about 73% RH. The relationships between liquid water content (LWC) and O3 or SOA were investigated. The results show that LWC is the key factor that leads to an opposite effect on O3 and SOA formation from benzene. The peak O3 concentration exponentially decreased 37% as LWC0 increased from zero to 349.8 μg m−3. Heterogeneous reaction of dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) with particle water is the major reason for the decrease of O3. The yields of SOA increased from 5.2 to 10.5% as LWC0 increased from zero to 349.8 μg m−3. The relative intensities of bands OH, CO, COH and NO3− increased by 22.9, 6.8, 6.7 and 13.1 times respectively as compared with dry condition. Alcohols or hydrates are confirmed to be the major contributors to SOA with increasing LWC.