Enhanced secondary organic aerosol formation from the photo-oxidation of mixed anthropogenic volatile organic compounds

Abstract

Abstract. Vehicular exhaust is one of the important contribution sources of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in urban areas. Long-chain alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons are included in gaseous organic pollutants of vehicle emissions, representative of diesel and gasoline vehicles respectively. In this work, the SOA production from individual anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOCs) (n-dodecane, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene) and mixed AVOCs (n-dodecane + 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene) was studied with a large-scale outdoor smog chamber. Results showed that the SOA formation from the mixed AVOCs was enhanced compared to the predicted SOA mass concentration based on the SOA yield of individual AVOCs. According to the results of mass spectrometry analysis with electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-ToF-MS), interaction occurred between intermediate products from the two precursors, which could be the main reason for the enhanced SOA production from the mixed AVOC reaction system. The study results could improve our understanding about the contribution of representative precursors from vehicular exhaust to the formation of SOA in urban areas. This study also indicates that further studies on SOA chemistry from the mixed VOC reaction system are needed, as the interactions between them and the effect on SOA formation can give us a further understanding of the SOA formed in the atmosphere.