Shin-Seung Kim

Bio: Shin-Seung Kim is an academic researcher from Clarkson College. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mass transfer & Mass transfer coefficient. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 3 publications receiving 227 citations.

Gas uptake and chemical aging of semisolid organic aerosol particles

Abstract: Organic substances can adopt an amorphous solid or semisolid state, influencing the rate of heterogeneous reactions and multiphase processes in atmospheric aerosols. Here we demonstrate how molecular diffusion in the condensed phase affects the gas uptake and chemical transformation of semisolid organic particles. Flow tube experiments show that the ozone uptake and oxidative aging of amorphous protein is kinetically limited by bulk diffusion. The reactive gas uptake exhibits a pronounced increase with relative humidity, which can be explained by a decrease of viscosity and increase of diffusivity due to hygroscopic water uptake transforming the amorphous organic matrix from a glassy to a semisolid state (moisture-induced phase transition). The reaction rate depends on the condensed phase diffusion coefficients of both the oxidant and the organic reactant molecules, which can be described by a kinetic multilayer flux model but not by the traditional resistor model approach of multiphase chemistry. The chemical lifetime of reactive compounds in atmospheric particles can increase from seconds to days as the rate of diffusion in semisolid phases can decrease by multiple orders of magnitude in response to low temperature or low relative humidity. The findings demonstrate that the occurrence and properties of amorphous semisolid phases challenge traditional views and require advanced formalisms for the description of organic particle formation and transformation in atmospheric models of aerosol effects on air quality, public health, and climate.

Production and decay of ClNO2 from the reaction of gaseous N2O5 with NaCl solution: Bulk and aerosol experiments

Abstract: The chemistry of N2O5 on liquid NaCl aerosols or bulk NaCl solutions was studied at 291 K by aerosol smog chamber and wetted-wall flow tube experiments. The uptake of N2O5 on deliquescent aerosol was obtained to be (3.2±0.2)×10−2 (1σ error) from the aerosol experiments. In the wetted-wall flow tube we observed that nitryl chloride (ClNO2) is the main product of the reaction at NaCl concentrations larger than approximately 0.5 M and almost the only product at concentrations larger than 1 M. The ClNO2 yield does not depend linearly on the NaCl concentration, especially at small sodium chloride concentrations (i.e., smaller than 1 M). It appeared that a simple mechanism where N2O5 undergoes two reaction channels (hydrolysis and reaction with Cl−) is unable to explain the observed concentration dependence of the product yield. We propose that N2O5 dissociates to NO2+ and NO3− (rate constant kl>104 s−1) mainly. The directly hydrolysis of N2O5 (k3[H2O]) is less than 20% of the total reaction. NO2+ reacts with water to form 2H+ and NO3− (k5) or with Cl− to form ClNO2 (k4). Neglecting the influence of ionic strength we evaluate k4/k5 to be 836±32 (1σ error). Using the wetted-wall flow tube technique, we studied the uptake of nitryl chloride by aqueous solutions containing NaCl. We observed that the uptake coefficient γ decreased from (4.84±0.13)×10−6 on pure water to (0.27±0.02)×10−6 on a 4.6 M NaCl solution. The sharp decrease of γ with increasing salt concentrations is evidence of reversible hydrolysis. ClNO2 dissociates to Cl− + NO2+(k6). In the absence of Cl− we evaluate H ⋅ k61/2 to be 0.44±0.01 mol L−1 atm−1 s−1/2. Finally, we discuss that atomic Cl from photolysis of ClNO2 may play a role in the marine boundary layer at high northern latitudes.

Light induced conversion of nitrogen dioxide into nitrous acid on submicron humic acid aerosol

Abstract: . The interactions of aerosols consisting of humic acids with gaseous nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were investigated under different light conditions in aerosol flow tube experiments at ambient pressure and temperature. The results show that NO2 is converted on the humic acid aerosol into nitrous acid (HONO), which is released from the aerosol and can be detected in the gas phase at the reactor exit. The formation of HONO on the humic acid aerosol is strongly activated by light: In the dark, the HONO-formation was below the detection limit, but it was increasing with the intensity of the irradiation with visible light. Under simulated atmospheric conditions with respect to the actinic flux, relative humidity and NO2-concentration, reactive uptake coefficients γrxn for the NO2→HONO conversion on the aerosol between γrxn 60% RH). The measured uptake coefficients for the NO2→HONO conversion are too low to explain the HONO-formation rates observed near the ground in rural and urban environments by the conversion of NO2→HONO on organic aerosol surfaces, even if one would assume that all aerosols consist of humic acid only. It is concluded that the processes leading to HONO formation on the Earth surface will have a much larger impact on the HONO-formation in the lowermost layer of the troposphere than humic materials potentially occurring in airborne particles.