Effects of SO2 on optical properties of secondary organic aerosol generated from photooxidation of toluene under different relative humidity conditions

Abstract

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has great impacts on air quality, climate change and human health. The composition and physicochemical properties of SOA differ greatly because they form under different atmospheric conditions and from various precursors as well as differing oxidation. In this work, photooxidation experiments of toluene were performed under four conditions (dry, dry with SO2, wet and wet with SO2) to investigate the effect of SO2 under different relative humidities on the composition and optical properties of SOA at wavelengths of 375 and 532 nm. According to our results, the increase in humidity enhances not only light absorption but also the scattering property of the SOA. Oligomers formed through multiphase reactions might be the reason for this phenomenon. Adding SO2 slightly lowers the real part of the complex refractive index, RI(n), of toluene-derived SOA (RI(n)dry; SO2