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    Glyoxal and methylglyoxal in Atlantic seawater and marine aerosol particles: Method development and first application during the polarstern cruise ANT XXVII/4
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2013) van Pinxteren, M.; Herrmann, H.
    An analytical method for the determination of the alpha dicarbonyls glyoxal (GLY) and methylglyoxal (MGLY) from seawater and marine aerosol particles is presented. The method is based on derivatization with o-(2,3,4,5,6-Pentafluorobenzyl)-hydroxylamine (PFBHA) reagent, solvent extraction and GC-MS (SIM) analysis. The method showed good precision (RSD < 10%), sensitivity (detection limits in the low ng L−1 range), and accuracy (good agreement between external calibration and standard addition). The method was applied to determine GLY and MGLY in oceanic water sampled during the Polarstern cruise ANT XXVII/4 from Capetown to Bremerhaven in spring 2011. GLY and MGLY were determined in the sea surface microlayer (SML) of the ocean and corresponding bulk water (BW) with average concentrations of 228 ng L−1 (GLY) and 196 ng L−1 (MGLY). The results show a significant enrichment (factor of 4) of GLY and MGLY in the SML. Furthermore, marine aerosol particles (PM1) were sampled during the cruise and analyzed for GLY (average concentration 0.19 ng m−3) and MGLY (average concentration 0.15 ng m−3). On aerosol particles, both carbonyls show a very good correlation with oxalate, supporting the idea of a secondary formation of oxalic acid via GLY and MGLY. Concentrations of GLY and MGLY in seawater and on aerosol particles were correlated to environmental parameters such as global radiation, temperature, distance to the coastline and biological activity. There are slight hints for a photochemical production of GLY and MGLY in the SML (significant enrichment in the SML, higher enrichment at higher temperature). However, a clear connection of GLY and MGLY to global radiation as well as to biological activity cannot be concluded from the data. A slight correlation between GLY and MGLY in the SML and in aerosol particles could be a hint for interactions, in particular of GLY, between seawater and the atmosphere.
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    Kinetic measurements of the reactivity of hydrogen peroxide and ozone towards small atmospherically relevant aldehydes, ketones and organic acids in aqueous solutions
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2014) Schöne, L.; Herrmann, H.
    Free radical reactions are an important degradation process for organic compounds within the aqueous atmospheric environment. Nevertheless, non-radical oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide and ozone also contribute to the degradation and conversion of these substances (Tilgner and Herrmann, 2010). In this work, kinetic investigations of non-radical reactions were conducted using UV / Vis spectroscopy (dual-beam spectrophotometer and stopped flow technique) and a capillary electrophoresis system applying pseudo-first order kinetics to reactions of glyoxal, methylglyoxal, glycolaldehyde, glyoxylic, pyruvic and glycolic acid as well as methacrolein (MACR) and methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) with H2O2 and ozone at 298 K. The measurements indicate rather small rate constants at room temperature of k2nd < 3 M−1 s−1 (except for the unsaturated compounds exposed to ozone). Compared to radical reaction rate constants the values are about 10 orders of magnitude smaller (kOH• ~109 M−1 s−1). However, when considering the much larger non-radical oxidant concentrations compared to radical concentrations in urban cloud droplets, calculated first-order conversion rate constants change the picture towards H2O2 reactions becoming more important, especially when compared to the nitrate radical. For some reactions mechanistic suggestions are also given.
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    Treatment of non-ideality in the SPACCIM multiphase model - Part 1: Model development
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2016) Rusumdar, A.J.; Wolke, R.; Tilgner, A.; Herrmann, H.
    Ambient tropospheric deliquesced particles generally comprise a complex mixture of electrolytes, organic compounds, and water. Dynamic modeling of physical and chemical processes in this complex matrix is challenging. Thus, up-to-date multiphase chemistry models generally do not consider non-ideal solution effects. Therefore, the present study was aimed at presenting further development of the SPACCIM (Spectral Aerosol Cloud Chemistry Interaction Model) through treatment of solution non-ideality, which has not been considered before. The present paper firstly describes the model developments including (i) the implementation of solution non-ideality in aqueous-phase reaction kinetics in the SPACCIM framework, (ii) the advancements in the coupling scheme of microphysics and multiphase chemistry and (iii) the required adjustments of the numerical schemes, especially in the sparse linear solver and the calculation of the Jacobian. Secondly, results of sensitivity investigations are outlined, aiming at the evaluation of different activity coefficient modules and the examination of the contributions of different intermolecular forces to the overall activity coefficients. Finally, first results obtained with the new model framework are presented. The SPACCIM parcel model was developed and, so far, applied for the description of aerosol–cloud interactions. To advance SPACCIM also for modeling physical and chemical processes in deliquesced particles, the solution non-ideality has to be taken into account by utilizing activities in reaction terms instead of aqueous concentrations. The main goal of the extended approach was to provide appropriate activity coefficients for solved species. Therefore, an activity coefficient module was incorporated into the kinetic model framework of SPACCIM. Based on an intercomparison of different activity coefficient models and the comparison with experimental data, the AIOMFAC approach was implemented and extended by additional interaction parameters from the literature for mixed organic–inorganic systems. Moreover, the performance and the capability of the applied activity coefficient module were evaluated by means of water activity measurements, literature data and results of other activity coefficient models. Comprehensive comparison studies showed that the SpactMod (SPACCIM activity coefficient module) is valuable for predicting the thermodynamic behavior of complex mixtures of multicomponent atmospheric aerosol particles. First simulations with a detailed chemical mechanism have demonstrated the applicability of SPACCIM-SpactMod. The simulations indicate that the treatment of solution non-ideality might be needed for modeling multiphase chemistry processes in deliquesced particles. The modeled activity coefficients imply that chemical reaction fluxes of chemical processes in deliquesced particles can be both decreased and increased depending on the particular species involved in the reactions. For key ions, activity coefficients on the order of 0.1–0.8 and a strong dependency on the charge state as well as the RH conditions are modeled, implying a lowered chemical processing of ions in concentrated solutions. In contrast, modeled activity coefficients of organic compounds are in some cases larger than 1 under deliquesced particle conditions and suggest the possibility of an increased chemical processing of organic compounds. Moreover, the model runs have shown noticeable differences in the pH values calculated with and without consideration of solution non-ideality. On average, the predicted pH values of the simulations considering solution non-ideality are −0.27 and −0.44 pH units lower under 90 and 70 % RH conditions, respectively. More comprehensive results of detailed SPACCIM-SpactMod studies on the multiphase processing in organic–inorganic mixtures of deliquesced particles are described in a companion paper.