Reactive uptake of ammonia by secondary organic aerosols: Implications for air quality

Reactions between ammonia (NH3) and organic compounds containing carbonyl functional groups in aerosol particles can form organic products that are less basic than NH3 and are thus unable to neutralize efficiently nitric and sulfuric acids. In this exploratory study, the University of California, Irvine - California Institute of Technology (UCI-CIT) model is used to investigate the potential air quality impacts of including of the chemical uptake of NH3 by secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in a regional airshed model. A surface reaction of NH3 with SOA is implemented into the model to determine the impact of this process on NH3 and PM2.5 concentrations in the South Coast Air Basin of California (SoCAB). Air quality simulations are conducted using uptake coefficients ranging from 10−5 to 10−2 to explore the sensitivity of changes in NH3 and PM2.5 concentrations to the magnitude of the uptake coefficient. Results indicate that the chemical uptake of NH3 by SOA can potentially deplete gaseous NH3 concentrations, causing indirect reductions in the amount of ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate in particulate matter. The magnitude of the impact on NH3 and PM2.5 concentrations exhibits a strong but non-linear dependence on the value of the uptake coefficient, with evidence for small but notable impacts on air quality even with the lowest assumed uptake coefficient of 10−5.