Brown Carbon and Its Atmospheric Chemical Evolution

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Aerosols".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 April 2023) | Viewed by 3000

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
California Air Resources Board, Sacramento, CA 95814, USA
Interests: aerosol optical properties; emissions; aerosol-cloud interactions

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Guest Editor
Montrose Environmental Group, Inc., 5120 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock, AR 72118, USA
Interests: atmospheric chemistry; carbonaceous aerosol; secondary organic aerosol; air quality measurements; air toxics; volatile organic compounds; source apportionment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Carbonaceous aerosols influence the climate directly through the scattering and absorption of solar radiation. Despite the latest progress quantifying the absorptive properties of black carbon (BC) particles, large uncertainties remain regarding the magnitude of the direct radiative forcing of light-absorbing organic particles, so-called “Brown Carbon” (BrC). BrC is an umbrella term for hundreds to thousands of organic compounds with various functionalities. BrC is largely emitted by combustion activities, but recent laboratory evidence points to its formation via secondary reactions. The absorption coefficient of BrC particles spans nearly four orders of magnitude, depending on source characteristics and secondary formation, and can alter the mixing state (and hence the direct radiative forcing) of BC particles. These factors complicate the radiative treatment of light-absorptive carbonaceous aerosols.

This Special Issue will focus on the impacts of source emissions, mixing state, and atmospheric processing on the absorptive and scattering properties of carbonaceous aerosols (BC and BrC). Special attention will be given to work investigating the formation of secondary BrC particles and their optical properties using field or laboratory measurements. We also encourage the submission of manuscripts seeking to improve the representation of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols using electromagnetic model calculations (e.g., Mie theory, Rayleigh–Debye–Gans theory) and real-world mixing state representation.

Dr. Georges Saliba
Dr. Antonios Tasoglou
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Brown carbon
  • Black carbon
  • Absorptive and scattering properties
  • Mixing state
  • Secondary organic aerosol

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2903 KiB  
Article
Effect of Diesel Soot on the Heterogeneous Reaction of NO2 on the Surface of γ-Al2O3
by Chao Wang, Lingdong Kong, Shengyan Jin, Lianghai Xia, Jie Tan and Yuwen Wang
Atmosphere 2022, 13(2), 333; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020333 - 16 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1840
Abstract
Soot and aged soot are often found to be mixed with atmospheric particles, which inevitably affect various atmospheric heterogeneous reactions and secondary aerosol formation. Previous studies have investigated the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 with different types of soot, but there are few [...] Read more.
Soot and aged soot are often found to be mixed with atmospheric particles, which inevitably affect various atmospheric heterogeneous reactions and secondary aerosol formation. Previous studies have investigated the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 with different types of soot, but there are few studies on the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 with mixtures containing diesel soot (DS) or aged DS and mineral dust particles. In this study, the effects of DS and aged DS on the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 on the surface of γ-Al2O3 were investigated via in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectrometry (DRIFTS). The results showed that the DS or DS n-hexane extract significantly inhibited the formation of nitrate on γ-Al2O3 particles and promoted the formation of nitrite. At 58% RH, with the increase of DS or DS n-hexane extract loading amount, the effect of DS or DS n-hexane extract on the formation of nitrate changed from promotion to inhibition, but DS or DS n-hexane extract always promoted the formation of nitrite. The results also showed that light was conducive to the formation of nitrate on the DS-γ-Al2O3 or DS-n-hexane extract-γ-Al2O3 particles. Furthermore, the influence of soot aging on the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 was investigated under light and no light. In the dark, O3-aged DS-γ-Al2O3 or O3-aged DS-n-hexane extract-γ-Al2O3 firstly inhibited the formation of nitrate on the mixed particles and then promoted it, while the effect of aged DS on nitrite formation was complex. Under light, the O3-aged DS-γ-Al2O3 firstly promoted the formation of nitrate on the mixed particles and then inhibited it, while the O3-aged DS-n-hexane extract-γ-Al2O3 promoted the formation of nitrate on the mixed particles. Our results further showed that the production of nitrate on the O3-aged particles under light or no light was greater than that of the UV-nitrate-aged particles. This study is helpful to deeply understand the atmospheric chemical behavior of soot and the heterogeneous conversion of atmospheric NO2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Brown Carbon and Its Atmospheric Chemical Evolution)
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