EC-11. Chamber Studies of Volatile Chemical Product Oxidation: The CSU-NOAA SCENTS Study

Abstract
Volatile chemical products (VCPs) have recently emerged as an important contribution to urban ozone generation and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production which impact our understanding of radiative budgets and affect human health. Chamber experiments are an effective tool for probing specific chemical mechanisms in a more controlled environment than field measurements. The SCENTS (Secondary organic aerosol Chamber Experiments of Non-Traditional Species) project was specifically designed to constrain reaction rates and SOA generation of VCPs under urban conditions. Specifically, we seek to understand the evolving composition of both gas and aerosols in an urban environment, contribute to oxidation reaction rate constraints of VCPs, and constrain the rate of aerosol generation in urban environments. In collaboration with Colorado State University (CSU), we conducted chamber experiments under NOx conditions characteristic of the urban environment to probe the atmospheric chemistry of VCPs and subsequent aerosol formation to ammonium sulfate seed. We measured the gas-phase chemistry and SOA formation of of VCPs using a suite of instrumentation, including the high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-AMS) and extractive electrospray ionization (EESI) mass spectrometer for aerosol composition and the proton transfer reaction (PTR) mass spectrometer and ammonium chemical ionization mass spectrometer for speciated gas phase VOCs. These results will provide new constraints that can be incorporated into air quality models and provide laboratory data to aid in interpretation of field measurements during the upcoming AEROMMA 2023 campaign.Preliminary findings of SOA formation and gas-phase products of key VCPs, including benzene alcohol, carbitol, and texanol, will be presented.