No abstract

No abstract

We report on the production and study of stable, highly charged droplets of superfluid helium. Using a novel experimental setup we produce neutral beams of liquid helium nanodroplets containing millions of atoms or more that can be ionized by electron impact, mass-per-charge selected, and ionized a second time before being analyzed. Droplets containing up to 55 net positive charges are identified and the appearance sizes of multiply charge droplets are determined as a function of charge state. We show that the droplets are stable on the millisecond time scale of the experiment and decay through the loss of small charged clusters, not through symmetric Coulomb explosions.

Abstract. A series of photooxidation experiments were conducted in an atmospheric simulation chamber in order to investigate the oxidation mechanism and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation potential of the model anthropogenic gas phase precursor, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene. Alongside specific aerosol measurements, comprehensive gas phase measurements, primarily by Chemical Ionisation Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (CIR-TOF-MS), were carried out to provide detailed insight into the composition and behaviour of the organic components of the gas phase matrix during SOA formation. An array of gas phase organic compounds was measured during the oxidation process, including several previously unmeasured primary bicyclic compounds possessing various functional groups. Analysis of results obtained during this study implies that these peroxide bicyclic species along with a series of ring opening products and organic acids contribute to SOA growth. The effect of varying the VOC/NOx ratio on SOA formation was explored, as was the effect of acid seeding. It was found that low NOx conditions favour more rapid aerosol formation and a higher aerosol yield, a result that implies a role for organic peroxides in the nucleation process and SOA growth.

No abstract