Improved AIOMFAC model parameterisation of the temperature dependence of activity coefficients for aqueous organic mixtures

Abstract

Abstract. This study presents a new, improved parameterisation of the temperature dependence of activity coefficients in the AIOMFAC (Aerosol Inorganic–Organic Mixtures Functional groups Activity Coefficients) model applicable for aqueous as well as water-free organic solutions. For electrolyte-free organic and organic–water mixtures the AIOMFAC model uses a group-contribution approach based on UNIFAC (UNIversal quasi-chemical Functional-group Activity Coefficients). This group-contribution approach explicitly accounts for interactions among organic functional groups and between organic functional groups and water. The previous AIOMFAC version uses a simple parameterisation of the temperature dependence of activity coefficients, aimed to be applicable in the temperature range from ~275 to ~400 K. With the goal to improve the description of a wide variety of organic compounds found in atmospheric aerosols, we extend the AIOMFAC parameterisation for the functional groups carboxyl, hydroxyl, ketone, aldehyde, ether, ester, alkyl, aromatic carbon-alcohol, and aromatic hydrocarbon to atmospherically relevant low temperatures with the introduction of a new temperature dependence parameterisation. The improved temperature dependence parameterisation is derived from classical thermodynamic theory by describing effects from changes in molar enthalpy and heat capacity of a multicomponent system. Thermodynamic equilibrium data of aqueous organic and water-free organic mixtures from the literature are carefully assessed and complemented with new measurements to establish a comprehensive database, covering a wide temperature range (~190 to ~440 K) for many of the functional group combinations considered. Different experimental data types and their processing for the estimation of AIOMFAC model parameters are discussed. The new AIOMFAC parameterisation for the temperature dependence of activity coefficients from low to high temperatures shows an overall improvement of 25% in comparison to the previous model version. The new parameterisation of AIOMFAC agrees well with a large number of experimental datasets and enables the calculation of activity coefficients of a wide variety of different aqueous/water-free organic solutions down to the low temperatures present in the upper troposphere.