Atmospheric evolution of organic aerosol

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Abstract
We report here results of an experimental study of the OH‐initiated oxidation of solid organics in the presence of O2, NOx and H2O, using two kinds of self‐assembled organic monolayers (alkane and aromatic), paraffin and pyrene films as proxies for organic aerosol. We show that the OH‐initiated oxidation of the alkane surfaces leads to rapid volatilization. The gas‐phase products detected include HO2, H2O2, CO, CO2, HCO, CH2O, CH3CHO, CH3OH, and HCOOH. We conclude that volatilization is at least as efficient as wet deposition as a removal process for aliphatic particulates, whereas aromatic particulates show higher stability towards volatilization.