Phase Transitions of Biologically-Derived Components in Sea Spray Aerosols

Undergraduate #144
Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Air

Michael R. Alves - Augsburg College
Co-Author(s): Meagan Marciano, Armando Estillore, Jonathan Trueblood, and Vicki H. Grassian, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA

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Airborne sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles show diversity in their compositions that is highly dependent on the complex biological, chemical, and physical processes of the subsurface and sea surface microlayer. We investigate the hygroscopicity of inorganic salts and chemically complex set of biologically-derived components of SSA and the mixtures of these compounds with sodium chloride using Hygroscopicity Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (HTDMA) under sub-saturated conditions. An experiment on the chemical changes of aerosols via marine aerosol references tanks in polluted conditions is also carried out at the Center for Aerosol Impacts on the Climate and the Environment.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): CAICE, NSF Center for Chemical Innovation (CHE-1305427).

Faculty Advisor: David Hanson, hansondr@augsburg.edu

Role: For the first part of the research, I found model systems from past research done at UCSD and Scripps, and observed the change in hygroscopicity as a function of model complexity. This project had a meaningful contribution to aerosol chemistry as to why some SSA may become a part of cloud systems and why others may not. The second part of the research required extensive method characterization and testing on my part to produce meaningful results. The results from this specific experiment proved very interesting and is currently being investigated through other means of instrumental techniques.