Formation characteristics of aerosol triplet state and coupling effect between the separated components with different polarity
Abstract. Atmospheric aerosols contain organic matter that can form triplet state (3C*) excited by sunlight, which plays a critical role in the aging process of aerosols. In order to understand the triplet state reaction mechanism of complex aerosol components, the formation characteristics of 3C* in the aerosol components with different polarity, i.e., the highly polar water-soluble matter (HP-WSM), humic-like substances (HULIS) and methanol-soluble matter (MSM) were investigated. The coupling effect of generation of 3C* and reactive oxygen species (ROS) between different aerosol components was also examined. The results show that the 3C* generation characteristics is strongly dependent on the polarity of these components. HULIS has the strongest generation ability of 3C*, and the MSM contribute the most to the total generation of 3C*. It is found that the high-energy triplet states (ET ≥ 250 kJ mol−1) of HULIS and HP-WSM components account for up to 80 %. These 3C* has an important contribution to the photochemically generation of ROS, and the generated ROS of different components are also different, which is determined by the chromophore composition of complex organic matter. Tyrosine-like chromophore is the main substance leading to the formation of water-soluble 3C*, whilethe highly oxidized HULIS chromophore plays a leading role in the water-insoluble component. This study also found that there is a coupling effect between HP-WSM and HULIS on 3C* and ROS generation. The 3C* generation rate increases by about 40 % after mixing, but the generation of 1O2 is severely reduced. Overall, this study provides deep insights into the generation characteristics of the triplet state of atmospheric aerosols.