Laboratory Chamber Studies on Gas-Phase Photooxidation and Aqueous Chemistry of Phenols and Methoxyphenols in Biomass Burning Organic Aerosol Formation

With support from the Environmental Chemical Sciences Program in the Division of Chemistry Nga Lee Ng and Rodney Weber at Georgia Tech and their students will study the formation of organic aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air) from biomass burning emissions in the atmosphere. Understanding how these particles form is important for evaluating their impact on climate and human health. During fires, the decomposition of woody tissues in plants at high temperatures releases a significant level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including phenolic compounds. The team will investigate how these phenolic compounds react under atmospherically relevant conditions to form organic particles, as well as the ability of these particles to absorb light. The team will also develop and implement an instruction module on particles from biomass-burning smoke to expose middle school students in the greater Atlanta area to new scientific concepts related to wildfires and air pollution.

Phenols and methoxyphenols are a significant part of non-methane organic compounds emitted from biomass burning. The oxidation and further chemical processing of these important biomass burning emissions has not been systematically studied under realistic ambient conditions. Through comprehensive laboratory chamber experiments, this project will investigate secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from gas-phase oxidation of a set of phenolic compounds under different reaction conditions and their subsequent aqueous-phase processing. The optical properties of aerosols will also be characterized. Results from this study will provide fundamental data to parameterize the gas-phase and aqueous-phase chemistries of phenolic compounds released into the environment and provide enhanced information on the aerosols that they form. These data will, in turn, be useful to scientist developing atmospheric models designed to account for such organic aerosols.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2625603
Principal Investigator: Nga Lee Ng
Funds Obligated: $167,895
State: CA