Heterogeneous photochemistry of dicarboxylic acids on mineral dust

authors

• Ponczek Milena
• Hayeck Nathalie
• Emmelin Corinne
• George C.

document type

abstract

Dicarboxylic acids have low volatilities and hence are present mostly in the particulate phase, including the surface of dust particles. Mineral dust, globally the mostemitted aerosol, has photocatalytic properties that can initiate photo-induced heterogeneous chemistry of organic compounds, which is still poorly characterized. Weinvestigated the photochemistry offive dicarboxylic acids (DCA) i.e., succinic (butanedioic) acid, glutaric (pentanedioic) acid, adipic (hexanedioic) acid, pimelic(heptanedioic) acid and suberic (octanedioic) acid on Arizona test dust (ATD) particles upon UV-A light irradiation (0–1.4 mW cm−2). Gas-phase products weremonitored by a high-resolution proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS), and surface sorbed products were extracted and analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a heated electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometer (UHPLC-HESI-HRMS). Monoacids and aldehydeswere the main observed and quantified gaseous products. In contrast, shorter chain DCA and highly oxygenated products were found at the surface of the dustparticles. Interestingly, the photochemistry of these DCAs presented an even-odd alternation concerning their heterogeneous reactivity, with odd-numbered carbondiacids being more reactive than their even-numbered homologous ones. We present and discuss a reaction mechanism for the C4–C8DCA heterogeneous photo-oxidation catalysed by TiO2/Fe2O3-rich dust particles. Our results suggest that photochemical processing on dust surfaces should be regarded as a possible efficient pathway for altering their surface properties impacting ice nucleation and cloud condensation properties

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