Influence of Aerosol Chemical Composition on Condensation Sink Efficiency and New Particle Formation in Beijing

Abstract

Relatively high concentrations of preexisting particles, acting as a condensation sink (CS) of gaseous precursors, have been thought to suppress the occurrence of new particle formation (NPF) in urban environments, yet NPF still occurs frequently. Here, we aim to understand the factors promoting and inhibiting NPF events in urban Beijing by combining one-year-long measurements of particle number size distributions and PM2.5 chemical composition. Our results show that indeed the CS is an important factor controlling the occurrence of NPF events, with its chemical composition affecting the efficiency of the background particles in removing gaseous H2SO4 (effectiveness of the CS) driving NPF. During our observation period, the CS was found to be more effective for ammonium nitrate-rich (NH4NO3-rich) fine particles. On non-NPF event days, particles acting as CS contained a larger fraction of NH4NO3 compared to NPF event days under comparable CS levels. In particular, in the CS range from 0.02 to 0.03 s−1, the nitrate fraction was 17% on NPF event days and 26% on non-NPF event days. Overall, our results highlight the importance of considering the chemical composition of preexisting particles when estimating the CS and their role in inhibiting NPF events, especially in urban environments.