Understanding the Formation, Stability, and Reactivity of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (EPFR)
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Aerosols".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (27 November 2022) | Viewed by 293
Special Issue Editor
Interests: dust; PAH; iron; air pollution; atmospheric chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recently, an emergent subset of airborne organic species has received increased attention: environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFR) can be stable for several months in the atmosphere. Rather than consisting of an individual species, EPFR is a class of compounds, each of which has an unpaired electron, encompassing a variety of chemical species. It is suggested that various phenoxyls, semiquinones and graphene oxides may be some important components involved in this process, but this is under investigation. Having been observed in biochar, microplastics, combustion soot, fly ash, cigarette smoke, soils, and in Asian dust storms, EPFR are now known to be ubiquitous in atmospheric PM. Despite accounting for less than 0.001% of organic carbon in atmospheric particulate matter, the presence and formation of EPFR is significant from the perspectives of both health effects and atmospheric chemistry. Even at low concentrations of EPFR, significant increases in oxidative stress and inflammation were observed in rats. This may be due to that fact that, although generally stable in the atmosphere, EPFR have been linked to secondary production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in aqueous environmental and biological matrices. Therefore, the goal of this Special Issue is to gain a better understanding of atmospheric EPFR.
Although all manuscripts relating to EPFR will be considered, topics related to the following are of particular interest:
- The stability of EPFR during atmospheric processing;
- Formation kinetics of EPFR during various atmospheric processes;
- Mechanisms of EPFR formation.
By bringing these topics together, the intent is to integrate the current state of knowledge of EPFR formation, EPFR reactions during transport, and to unlock the secret of the stability behind these free radical species.
Dr. Brian Majestic
Guest Editor
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