Complex chemical composition of colored surface films formed from reactions of propanal in sulfuric acid at upper troposphere/lower stratosphere aerosol acidities.

ABSTRACT: Particles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS) consist mostly of concentrated sulfuric acid (40-80 wt %) in water. However, airborne measurements have shown that these particles also contain a significant fraction of organic compounds of unknown chemical composition. Acid-catalyzed reactions of carbonyl species are believed to be responsible for significant transfer of gas phase organic species into tropospheric aerosols and are potentially more important at the high acidities characteristic of UT/LS particles. In this study, experiments combining sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) with propanal and with mixtures of propanal with glyoxal and/or methylglyoxal at acidities typical of UT/LS aerosols produced highly colored surface films (and solutions) that may hav

SUBMITTER: Van Wyngarden AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4874526 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature