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Published December 1997 | public
Journal Article

Mathematical model for gas-particle partitioning of secondary organic aerosols

Abstract

A dynamic model is developed for gas-particle absorptive partitioning of semi-volatile organic aerosols. The model is applied to simulate a pair of m-xylene/NOₓ outdoor smog chamber experiments. In the presence of an inorganic seed aerosol a threshold for aerosol formation is predicted. An examination of characteristic times suggests conditions where an assumption of instantaneous gas-particle equilibrium is justified. Semi-volatile products that are second-generation, rather than first-generation, products of a parent hydrocarbon cause a delay in aerosol formation due to the delayed rate at which the second-generation products are formed. The gas-particle accommodation coefficient is the principal transport parameter and is estimated to have a value between 1.0 and 0.1 for the m-xylene aerosol.

Additional Information

This work was supported, in part, by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Center on Airborne Organics (R-819714-01-0), by National Science Foundation grant ATM-9307603, by the Coordinating Research Council (A-5-1), and by the Chevron Corporation. Spyros Pandis acknowledges support from EPA Grant R-823514-01-0. The authors would also like to thank Hali Forstner for insight regarding conditions necessary for nucleation.

Additional details

Created:
September 15, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023