Building an oxidation reactor in Taiwan: From volatile organic compounds to secondary organic aerosols

Large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted into the atmosphere from both human and natural sources. A significant portion of VOCs would be oxidized via their reactions with atmospheric oxidants like OH, NO3, ozone, etc. The products of the oxidation reactions are often of low volatility and may condense to form secondary organic aerosols (SOA). To study the effect of VOC oxidation in aerosol formation, we are building an oxidation flow reactor system, which consists of (1) a 22-l aluminum chamber, (2) an ozone source with an ozone detector, (3) a UV-C (254 nm) lamp, (4) a photoionization detector to measure the effective VOC concentration, (5) various flow/concentration controlling apparatuses, and (6) a scanning mobility particle sizer to monitor the generated particles. Under the conditions of high UV and ozone levels, the oxidation process can be speeded up by orders of magnitude in this reactor. We hope to use this reactor: (i) to learn the potential mass of SOA that can be formed from a given VOC source like a traffic or industry site; (ii) to trace back the SOA source by utilizing the shortened reaction times; (iii) to learn the trends from VOC to SOA.

Automated summary

The oxidation flow reactor system allows studying the effect of VOC oxidation on aerosol formation. It can accelerate the oxidation process and be used to investigate the properties and sources of the generated secondary organic aerosols.