Enhanced organic mass fraction and decreased hygroscopicity of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) during new particle formation events

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Abstract

In a forested near-urban location in central Germany, the CCN efficiency of particles smaller than 100 nm decreases significantly during periods of new particle formation. This results in an increase of average activation diameters, ranging from 5 to 8% at supersaturations of 0.33% and 0.74%, respectively. At the same time, the organic mass fraction in the sub-100-nm size range increases from approximately 2/3 to 3/4. This provides evidence that secondary organic aerosol (SOA) components are involved in the growth of new particles to larger sizes, and that the reduced CCN efficiency of small particles is caused by the low hygroscopicity of the condensing material. The observed dependence of particle hygroscopicity () on chemical composition can be parameterized as a function of organic and inorganic mass fractions (forg, f inorg) determined by aerosol mass spectrometry: = org forg + inorg finorg. The obtained value of org ≈ 0.1 is characteristic for SOA, and inorg ≈0.7 is consistent with the observed mix of ammonium, sulfate and nitrate ions. Copyright © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.

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Dusek, U., Frank, G. P., Curtius, J., Drewnick, F., Schneider, J., Krten, A., … Pöschl, U. (2010). Enhanced organic mass fraction and decreased hygroscopicity of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) during new particle formation events. Geophysical Research Letters, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040930

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