Estimating the Lower Limit of the Impact of Amines on Nucleation in the Earth’s Atmosphere

Entropy

Alexey B. Nadykto³  Jason Herb²  Fangqun Yu²  Yisheng Xu³  Ekaterina S. Nazarenko¹ 

[1] Department of Applied Mathematics, Moscow State University of Technology “Stankin”, Vadkovsky per. 1, Moscow 127055, Russia; E-Mail:;Atmospheric Science Research Center, State University of New York at Albany, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY 12203, USA; E-Mails:;State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China

关键词: new particle formation;    amines;    ammonia;    nucleation;    DFT;    thermochemistry;   

DOI  :  10.3390/e17052764

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Amines, organic derivatives of NH₃, are important common trace atmospheric species that can enhance new particle formation in the Earth’s atmosphere under favorable conditions. While methylamine (MA), dimethylamine (DMA) and trimethylamine (TMA) all efficiently enhance binary nucleation, MA may represent the lower limit of the enhancing effect of amines on atmospheric nucleation. In the present paper, we report new thermochemical data concerning MA-enhanced nucleation, which were obtained using the DFT PW91PW91/6-311++G (3df, 3pd) method, and investigate the enhancement in production of stable pre-nucleation clusters due to the MA. We found that the MA ternary nucleation begins to dominate over ternary nucleation of sulfuric acid, water and ammonia at [MA]/[NH₃] > ~10⁻³. This means that under real atmospheric conditions ([MA] ~ 1 ppt, [NH₃] ~ 1 ppb) the lower limit of the enhancement due to methylamines is either close to or higher than the typical effect of NH₃. A very strong impact of the MA is observed at low RH; however it decreases quickly as the RH grows. Low RH and low ambient temperatures were found to be particularly favorable for the enhancement in production of stable sulfuric acid-water clusters due to the MA.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
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