Recently, it has been proposed that organic aerosol particles in the atmosphere can exist in an amorphous semi-solid or solid (i.e. glassy) state. In this perspective, we analyse and discuss the formation and properties of amorphous semi-solids and glasses from organic liquids. Based on a systematic survey of a wide range of organic compounds, we present estimates for the glass forming properties of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In particular we investigate the dependence of the glass transition temperature T(g) upon various molecular properties such as the compounds' melting temperature, their molar mass, and their atomic oxygen-to-carbon ratios (O:C ratios). Also the effects of mixing different compounds and the effects of hygroscopic water uptake depending on ambient relative humidity are investigated. In addition to the effects of temperature, we suggest that molar mass and water content are much more important than the O:C ratio for characterizing whether an organic aerosol particle is in a liquid, semi-solid, or glassy state. Moreover, we show how the viscosity in liquid, semi-solid and glassy states affect the diffusivity of those molecules constituting the organic matrix as well as that of guest molecules such as water or oxidants, and we discuss the implications for atmospheric multi-phase processes. Finally, we assess the current state of knowledge and the level of scientific understanding, and we propose avenues for future studies to resolve existing uncertainties.

Organic substances can adopt an amorphous solid or semisolid state, influencing the rate of heterogeneous reactions and multiphase processes in atmospheric aerosols. Here we demonstrate how molecular diffusion in the condensed phase affects the gas uptake and chemical transformation of semisolid organic particles. Flow tube experiments show that the ozone uptake and oxidative aging of amorphous protein is kinetically limited by bulk diffusion. The reactive gas uptake exhibits a pronounced increase with relative humidity, which can be explained by a decrease of viscosity and increase of diffusivity due to hygroscopic water uptake transforming the amorphous organic matrix from a glassy to a semisolid state (moisture-induced phase transition). The reaction rate depends on the condensed phase diffusion coefficients of both the oxidant and the organic reactant molecules, which can be described by a kinetic multilayer flux model but not by the traditional resistor model approach of multiphase chemistry. The chemical lifetime of reactive compounds in atmospheric particles can increase from seconds to days as the rate of diffusion in semisolid phases can decrease by multiple orders of magnitude in response to low temperature or low relative humidity. The findings demonstrate that the occurrence and properties of amorphous semisolid phases challenge traditional views and require advanced formalisms for the description of organic particle formation and transformation in atmospheric models of aerosol effects on air quality, public health, and climate.Stokes-Einstein | percolation theory | glass transition | secondary organic aerosol partitioning | ozonolysis

Plasma-liquid interactions represent a growing interdisciplinary area of research involving plasma science, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, photolysis, multiphase chemistry and aerosol science. This review provides an assessment of the state-of-the-art of this multidisciplinary area and identifies the key research challenges. The developments in diagnostics, modeling and further extensions of cross section and reaction rate databases that are necessary to address these challenges are discussed. The review focusses on nonequilibrium plasmas.

Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are a large source of uncertainty in our current understanding of climate change and air pollution. The phase state of SOA is important for quantifying their effects on climate and air quality, but its global distribution is poorly characterized. We developed a method to estimate glass transition temperatures based on the molar mass and molecular O:C ratio of SOA components, and we used the global chemistry climate model EMAC with the organic aerosol module ORACLE to predict the phase state of atmospheric SOA. For the planetary boundary layer, global simulations indicate that SOA are mostly liquid in tropical and polar air with high relative humidity, semi-solid in the mid-latitudes and solid over dry lands. We find that in the middle and upper troposphere SOA should be mostly in a glassy solid phase state. Thus, slow diffusion of water, oxidants and organic molecules could kinetically limit gas–particle interactions of SOA in the free and upper troposphere, promote ice nucleation and facilitate long-range transport of reactive and toxic organic pollutants embedded in SOA.

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Emissions from biomass burning are a significant source of brown carbon (BrC) in the atmosphere. In this study, we investigate the molecular composition of freshly emitted biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) samples collected during test burns of sawgrass, peat, ponderosa pine, and black spruce. We demonstrate that both the BrC absorption and the chemical composition of light-absorbing compounds depend significantly on the type of biomass fuels. Common BrC chromophores in the selected BBOA samples include nitro-aromatics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon derivatives, and polyphenols spanning a wide range of molecular weights, structures, and light absorption properties. A number of biofuel-specific BrC chromophores are observed, indicating that some of them may be used as source-specific markers of BrC. On average, ∼50% of the light absorption in the solvent-extractable fraction of BBOA can be attributed to a limited number of strong BrC chromophores. The absorption coefficients of BBOA are affected by solar photolysis. Specifically, under typical atmospheric conditions, the 300 nm absorbance decays with a half-life of ∼16 h. A “molecular corridor” analysis of the BBOA volatility distribution suggests that many BrC compounds in the fresh BBOA have low saturation mass concentration (<1 μg m–3) and will be retained in the particle phase under atmospherically relevant conditions.

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed from partitioning of oxidation products of anthropogenic and biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) accounts for a substantial portion of atmospheric particulate matter. In describing SOA formation, it is generally assumed that VOC oxidation products rapidly adopt gas‐aerosol equilibrium. Here we estimate the equilibration timescale,τeq, of SOA gas‐particle partitioning using a state‐of‐the‐art kinetic flux model.τeqis found to be of order seconds to minutes for partitioning of relatively high volatility organic compounds into liquid particles, thereby adhering to equilibrium gas‐particle partitioning. However,τeqincreases to hours or days for organic aerosol associated with semi‐solid particles, low volatility, large particle size, and low mass loadings. Instantaneous equilibrium partitioning may lead to substantial overestimation of particle mass concentration and underestimation of gas‐phase concentration.

Oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) by the nitrate radical (NO3) represents one of the important interactions between anthropogenic emissions related to combustion and natural emissions from the biosphere. This interaction has been recognized for more than 3 decades, during which time a large body of research has emerged from laboratory, field, and modeling studies. NO3-BVOC reactions influence air quality, climate and visibility through regional and global budgets for reactive nitrogen (particularly organic nitrates), ozone, and organic aerosol. Despite its long history of research and the significance of this topic in atmospheric chemistry, a number of important uncertainties remain. These include an incomplete understanding of the rates, mechanisms, and organic aerosol yields for NO3-BVOC reactions, lack of constraints on the role of heterogeneous oxidative processes associated with the NO3 radical, the difficulty of characterizing the spatial distributions of BVOC and NO3 within the poorly mixed nocturnal atmosphere, and the challenge of constructing appropriate boundary layer schemes and non-photochemical mechanisms for use in state-of-the-art chemical transport and chemistry–climate models.This review is the result of a workshop of the same title held at the Georgia Institute of Technology in June 2015. The first half of the review summarizes the current literature on NO3-BVOC chemistry, with a particular focus on recent advances in instrumentation and models, and in organic nitrate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation chemistry. Building on this current understanding, the second half of the review outlines impacts of NO3-BVOC chemistry on air quality and climate, and suggests critical research needs to better constrain this interaction to improve the predictive capabilities of atmospheric models.