Atmospheric Chemistry of Organic Aerosols

Atmospheric organic aerosols encompass a complex mixture of primary particles emitted directly from sources such as vegetation, combustion or industrial processes, and secondary material formed through gas-to-particle conversion. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by both natural and anthropogenic activities undergo oxidation by radicals (such as OH, ozone or NO₃), yielding low-volatility products that partition into the particle phase. Oxidation pathways often involve peroxy radical (RO₂) chemistry and autoxidation steps that generate highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs), which contribute substantially to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass. Aqueous-phase reactions within cloud or aerosol water can further transform water-soluble organics, forming diacids, ketocarboxylic acids and oligomeric products. The resulting organic aerosols influence climate by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, act as cloud condensation nuclei with feedbacks on precipitation, and affect human health through respiratory exposure. Understanding these processes requires integrated approaches combining laboratory kinetics, field observations, chemical transport modelling and emerging computational techniques to resolve spatial and temporal variability at scales from street canyons to the global troposphere.

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Atmospheric Chemistry of Organic Aerosols publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in atmospheric chemistry of organic aerosols across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA): Particulate matter formed in the atmosphere from gas-phase oxidation of volatile organic compounds, contributing to organic particle mass.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): Organic gases emitted from natural or anthropogenic sources that undergo oxidation and contribute to aerosol formation.

Highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs): Low-volatility oxidation products formed via autoxidation of peroxy radicals, critical for SOA growth.

Peroxy radicals (RO₂): Reactive intermediates generated during VOC oxidation that undergo reactions leading to particle-phase products.

Chemical transport model (CTM): Numerical framework that simulates the emission, chemical transformation and transport of atmospheric species.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD): Modelling approach for solving fluid-flow equations, applied to predict pollutant dispersion and chemical evolution in complex geometries.

References

1. Improving air quality assessment using physics-inspired deep graph learning. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2023).
2. Response of biogenic secondary organic aerosol formation to anthropogenic NOx emission mitigation. The Science of The Total Environment (2024).
3. Modeling of street-scale pollutant dispersion by coupled simulation of chemical reaction, aerosol dynamics, and CFD. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2023).