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Published April 29, 1997 | public
Journal Article

Secondary Organic Aerosol from the Photooxidation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Molecular Composition

Abstract

Outdoor smog chamber photooxidations to determine the molecular composition of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from toluene, m-xylene, p-xylene, ethylbenzene, m-ethyltoluene, p-ethyltoluene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene in sunlight-irradiated hydrocarbon−NOₓ mixtures are reported. Gas-phase mechanisms leading to the observed products are proposed. Unsaturated anhydrides (2,5-furandione, 3-methyl-2,5-furandione, 3-ethyl-2,5-furandione) are predominant components of aerosol from all the aromatics, an observation that is consistent with gas-phase aromatic mechanisms involving ring fragmentation. Saturated anhydrides were also detected in significant quantities, which could result from the hydrogenation of the furandiones in sunlight in the particle phase.

Additional Information

© 1997 American Chemical Society. Received for review June 19, 1996. Revised manuscript received January 16, 1997. Accepted January 23, 1997. This work was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Exploratory Environmental Research Center on Airborne Organics (R-819714-01-0), National Science Foundation Grant ATM-9307603, the Coordinating Research Council (A-5-1), and the Chevron Corporation.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023