title: How do organic vapors contribute to new-particle formation?
abstract: Highly oxidised organic vapors can effectively stabilize sulphuric acid in heteronuclear clusters and drive new-particle formation. We present quantum chemical calculations of cluster stability, showing that multifunctional species can stabilize sulphuric acid and also present additional polar functional groups for subsequent cluster growth. We also model the multi-generation oxidation of vapors associated with secondary organic aerosol formation using a two-dimensional volatility basis set. The steady-state saturation ratios and absolute concentrations of extremely low volatility products are sufficient to drive new-particle formation with sulphuric acid at atmospherically relevant rates.
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, USA. nmd@andrew.cmu.edu
authors.forename: Neil M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Donahue
authors.affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Science, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Ismael K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Riipinen
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Riccobono
authors.affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Science, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schobesberger
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dommen
authors.affiliation: Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Baltensperger
authors.affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Science, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kulmala
authors.affiliation: Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Worsnop
authors.affiliation: Division of Atmospheric Science, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vehkamaki