Photochemical Degradation of 4-Nitrocatechol and 2,4-Dinitrophenol in a Sugar-Glass Secondary Organic Aerosol Surrogate

The roles that chemical environment and viscosity play in the photochemical fate of molecules trapped in atmospheric particles are poorly understood. The goal of this work was to characterize the photolysis of 4-nitrocatechol (4NC) and 2,4-dinitrophenol (24DNP) in semisolid isomalt as a new type of surrogate for glassy organic aerosols and compare it to photolysis in liquid water, isopropanol, and octanol. UV/vis spectroscopy was used to monitor the absorbance decay to determine the rates of photochemical loss of 4NC and 24DNP. The quantum yield of 4NC photolysis was found to be smaller in an isomalt glass (2.6 x 10(-6)) than in liquid isopropanol (1.1 x 10(-5)). Both 4NC and 24NDP had much lower photolysis rates in water than in organic matrices, suggesting that they would photolyze more efficiently in organic aerosol particles than in cloud or fog droplets. Liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry was used to examine the photolysis products of 4NC. In isopropanol solution, most products appeared to result from the oxidation of 4NC, in stark contrast to photoreduction and dimerization products that were observed in solid isomalt. Therefore, the photochemical fate of 4NC, and presumably of other nitrophenols, should depend on whether they undergo photodegradation in a liquid or semisolid organic particle.

Automated summary

This study investigates the roles of chemical environment and viscosity in the photochemical fate of molecules trapped in atmospheric particles. The results show that the photochemical fate of 4-nitrocatechol and 2,4-dinitrophenol depends on the medium they are in, with higher photolysis rates observed in organic aerosol particles compared to water. This suggests that the photodegradation of nitrophenols varies depending on whether they are in liquid or semisolid organic particles.