scholarly journals Measurements of the Diversity of Shape and Mixing State for Ambient Black Carbon Particles

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Hu ◽  
Dantong Liu ◽  
Ping Tian ◽  
Yangzhou Wu ◽  
Zhaoze Deng ◽  
...  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (16) ◽  
pp. 9429-9438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex K.Y. Lee ◽  
Laura-Hélèna Rivellini ◽  
Chia-Li Chen ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Derek J. Price ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cuizhi Sun ◽  
Kouji Adachi ◽  
Kentaro Misawa ◽  
Hing Cho Cheung ◽  
Charles C.‐K. Chou ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 14515-14525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan C. Moffet ◽  
Rachel E. O'Brien ◽  
Peter A. Alpert ◽  
Stephen T. Kelly ◽  
Don Q. Pham ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aerosol absorption is strongly dependent on the internal heterogeneity (mixing state) and morphology of individual particles containing black carbon (BC) and other non-absorbing species. Here, we examine an extensive microscopic data set collected in the California Central Valley during the CARES 2010 field campaign. During a period of high photochemical activity and pollution buildup, the particle mixing state and morphology were characterized using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) at the carbon K-edge. Observations of compacted BC core morphologies and thick organic coatings at both urban and rural sites provide evidence of the aged nature of particles, highlighting the importance of highly aged particles at urban sites during periods of high photochemical activity. Based on the observation of thick coatings and more convex BC inclusion morphology, either the aging was rapid or the contribution of fresh BC emissions at the urban site was relatively small compared to background concentrations. Most particles were observed to have the BC inclusion close to the center of the host. However, host particles containing inorganic rich inclusions had the BC inclusion closer to the edge of the particle. These measurements of BC morphology and mixing state provide important constraints for the morphological effects on BC optical properties expected in aged urban plumes.


2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (13) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Schwarz ◽  
R. S. Gao ◽  
J. R. Spackman ◽  
L. A. Watts ◽  
D. S. Thomson ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 2183-2207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghislain Motos ◽  
Julia Schmale ◽  
Joel C. Corbin ◽  
Marco Zanatta ◽  
Urs Baltensperger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Among the variety of particle types present in the atmosphere, black carbon (BC), emitted by combustion processes, is uniquely associated with harmful effects to the human body and substantial radiative forcing of the Earth. Pure BC is known to be non-hygroscopic, but its ability to acquire a coating of hygroscopic organic and inorganic material leads to increased diameter and hygroscopicity, facilitating droplet activation. This affects BC radiative forcing through aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs) and BC life cycle. To gain insights into these processes, we performed a field campaign in winter 2015–2016 in a residential area of Zurich which aimed at establishing relations between the size and mixing state of BC particles and their activation to form droplets in fog. This was achieved by operating a CCN counter (CCNC), a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), a single-particle soot photometer (SP2) and an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) behind a combination of a total- and an interstitial-aerosol inlet. Our results indicate that in the morning hours of weekdays, the enhanced traffic emissions caused peaks in the number fraction of externally mixed BC particles, which do not act as CCN within the CCNC. The very low effective peak supersaturations (SSpeak) occurring in fog (between approximately 0.03 % and 0.06 % during this campaign) restrict droplet activation to a minor fraction of the aerosol burden (around 0.5 % to 1 % of total particle number concentration between 20 and 593 nm) leading to very selective criteria on diameter and chemical composition. We show that bare BC cores are unable to activate to fog droplets at such low SSpeak, while BC particles surrounded by thick coating have very similar activation behaviour to BC-free particles. Using simplified κ-Köhler theory combined with the ZSR mixing rule assuming spherical core–shell particle geometry constrained with single-particle measurements of respective volumes, we found good agreement between the predicted and the directly observed size- and mixing-state-resolved droplet activation behaviour of BC-containing particles in fog. This successful closure demonstrates the predictability of their droplet activation in fog with a simplified theoretical model only requiring size and mixing state information, which can also be applied in a consistent manner in model simulations.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghislain Motos ◽  
Julia Schmale ◽  
Joel Christopher Corbin ◽  
Marco Zanatta ◽  
Urs Baltensperger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Among the variety of particle types present in the atmosphere, black carbon (BC), emitted by combustion processes, is uniquely associated with harmful effects to the human body and substantial radiative forcing of the Earth. Pure BC is known to be non-hygroscopic, but its ability to acquire a coating of hygroscopic organic and inorganic material leads to increased hygroscopicity as well as diameter, facilitating droplet activation. This affects BC radiative forcing through aerosol-cloud interactions (aci) and BC life cycle. To gain insights into these processes, we performed a field campaign in winter 2015/16 in a residential area of Zurich which aimed at distinguishing different particle mixing states regarding hygroscopic properties in the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)-activated fraction spectrum of urban aerosol and establishing relations between the mixing state of BC and its activation to form droplets in fog. This was achieved by operating a CCN counter (CCNC), a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), a single particle soot photometer (SP2) and an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) behind a combination of a total- and an interstitial-aerosol inlet. Our results indicate that, depending on the time of the day, we sampled both heavily aged internally mixed BC from background air advected to the site and freshly emitted externally mixed BC from local or regional traffic sources. During rush hours in the morning of weekdays, we found clear evidence that the enhanced traffic emissions caused peaks in the number fraction of externally mixed BC particles which do not act as CCN within the CCNC. The mixing state of BC particles was also found to play a key role in their ability to form fog droplets. The very low effective peak supersaturations (SSpeak) occurring in fog (between approximately 0.03 and 0.06 % during this campaign) restrict droplet activation to a minor fraction of the aerosol burden (around 0.5 to 1 % of total particle number concentration between 20 and 593 nm) leading to very selective criteria on diameter and chemical composition. We show that bare BC cores are unable to activate to fog droplets at such low SSpeak, while BC particles surrounded by thick coating have a very similar activation behavior as BC-free particles. The threshold coating thickness required for activation was shown to decrease with increasing BC core size. Using simplified κ-Köhler theory combined with the ZSR mixing rule assuming spherical core-shell particle geometry constrained with single particle measurements of respective volumes, we found good agreement between the predicted and the directly observed size and mixing state resolved droplet activation behaviour of BC-containing particles in fog. This successful closure demonstrates the predictability of their droplet activation in fog with a simplified theoretical model only requiring size and mixing state information, which can also be applied in a consistent manner in model simulations.


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