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Publication Date
10 August 2016

OCEANFILMS-2: Representing co-adsorption of saccharides in marine films improves agreement of modelled and observed marine aerosol chemistry

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Here we show that the addition of chemical interactions between soluble monosaccharides and an insoluble lipid surfactant monolayer improves agreement of modeled sea spray chemistry with observed marine aerosol chemistry. In particular, the alkane:hydroxyl mass ratio in modeled sea spray organic matter is reduced from a median of 2.73 to a range of 0.41 – 0.69, reducing the discrepancy with previous FTIR observations of clean marine aerosol (ratio: 0.24 - 0.38). The overall organic fraction of submicron sea spray also increases, allowing organic mass fractions in the range 0.5 – 0.7 for submicron sea spray particles over highly active phytoplankton blooms. Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) experiments support the modeling approach by demonstrating that soluble monosaccharides can strongly adsorb to a lipid monolayer likely via Coulomb interactions under appropriate conditions. These laboratory findings motivate further research to determine the relevance of co-adsorption mechanisms for real-world, sea spray aerosol production.

“Oceanfilms-2: Representing Co-Adsorption Of Saccharides In Marine Films Improves Agreement Of Modelled And Observed Marine Aerosol Chemistry”. 2016. Geophysical Research Letters 43: 8,306 - 8,313. doi:10.1002/2016GL069070.
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