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@PHDTHESIS{Frber:1033616,
author = {Färber, Michelle},
title = {{I}nvestigation of current and future anthropogenic
chemical regimes in simulation chamber experiments},
volume = {657},
school = {Köln},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Jülich},
publisher = {Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag},
reportid = {FZJ-2024-06496},
isbn = {978-3-95806-809-4},
series = {Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich Reihe Energie $\&$
Umwelt / Energy $\&$ Environment},
pages = {225},
year = {2025},
note = {Dissertation, Köln, 2024},
abstract = {Air pollution is a societal challenge, affecting millions
of people world-wide living in urban conglomerates. In
cities, emissions are mostly from anthropogenic activities
such as traffic, industry, cooking, and use of volatile care
products. These emissions are not only hazardous for human
health, they also undergo chemical degradation driven by
oxidants, forming secondary pollutants such as ozone (O3)
and particles. Main tropospheric oxidants are the hydroxyl
radical (OH), dominating oxidation processes during the day,
the nitrate radical (NO3), predominantly available during
the night, and ozone. In the reaction chain of the
atmospheric oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
peroxy (RO2) and hydroperoxy (HO2) radicals are formed,
which oxidise nitric oxide (NO) to nitrogen dioxide (NO2),
the latter being the main tropospheric source of ozone
following its photolysis. Understanding atmospheric
oxidation processes is crucial for mitigating air pollution
and tackling current and future air quality challenges. In
many different field studies, performed in or close to urban
areas, measured HO2 and/or RO2 radical concentrations could
not be reproduced by chemical model calculations, which
represent the current understanding of the atmospheric
chemistry. Even though chemical models carry uncertainties,
the observed discrepancies in particular for RO2 radicals
often exceeded a factor of three, making air quality
prediction challenging. Data collected during field
campaigns are very valuable in highlighting where our gap of
knowledge for atmospheric chemical processes lies.
Laboratory studies and experiments in atmospheric simulation
chambers can then focus on investigating such processes in a
confined and controlled environment. In this thesis, first
the performance and comparability of several different
atmospheric simulation chambers were studied. Oxidation
experiments of -pinene were performed in nine different
simulation chambers, which are part of the EUROCHAMP-2020
consortium. Chamber effects, such as the release of small
oxygenated compounds from the chamber wall or the loss of
trace gases or particles on the chamber wall were
characterised. Furthermore, yields of pinonaldehyde,
formaldehyde, and acetone, which are products from the
oxidation of -pinene by OH, could be derived for experiments
in five different chambers. A high variability of the yields
of pinonaldehyde and formaldehyde was observed, which is
also reflected in the available data from the literature. In
contrast, obtained acetone yields agree within the combined
uncertainties for the different chambers and within the
uncertainties with reported literature values. Overall,
well-characterised simulation chambers offer a great
opportunity to investigate atmospheric chemistry in a
controlled environment. The goal is to simplify the
complexity of field studies while still keeping the
conditions comparable to the real atmosphere. The main part
of the thesis is on the investigation of the daytime and
nighttime oxidation of anthropogenic VOCs in the atmospheric
simulation chamber SAPHIR at Forschungszentrum Jülich,
Germany. Measured trace gas and radical concentrations were
compared to zerodimensional box model calculations, based on
the Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM) and complemented by an
updated ozonolysis scheme for alkenes, and by
state-of-the-art peroxy and alkoxy chemistry from
structure-activity relationships (SAR). Photooxidation
experiments were performed for a variety of anthropogenic
VOCs at different levels of NO, mimicking current (high NO)
and future (low NO) chemical regimes. The VOCs investigated
were chosen according to their alkoxy chemistry, forming HO2
either in a single-step reaction (propane, propene,
trans-2-hexene) or in a multi-step reaction involving the
regeneration of RO2 (iso-pentane, n-hexane), which results
in a different number of ozone molecules produced per
oxidised VOC molecule. A comparison between measured trace
gases and radicals with results from the the MCM showed
overall a good agreement (within 17 $\%)$ for most VOCs. An
improved agreement of HO2 and RO2 radical concentrations, in
experiments with n-hexane, was found for the MCM
complemented by SAR, assuming a factor of 1:4 higher organic
nitrate yields for first-generation RO2 and RO2
isomerisation reactions. HO2/RO2 ratios were derived from
measured and modelled radical concentrations, showing a 20
$\%$ smaller ratio for the VOCs forming HO2 in a multi-step
reaction compared to VOCs forming HO2 in a single-step
reaction. The production of odd oxygen (Ox = O3 + NO2) was
calculated from modelled radical concentrations and from
measured Ox for 3 < NO < 6 ppbv and for NO < 1 ppbv, where
the Ox formation could additionally be determined from
measured radical concentrations. Overall, a good agreement
was found for the different approaches. In agreement with
the observations of the HO2/RO2 ratio, a 20 $\%$ higher Ox
production was observed for species, regenerating another
RO2 radical before eventually forming HO2. Overall, the
model-measurement discrepancies of the Ox production rates,
as found in urban areas, were not observed in the performed
chamber experiments. The nighttime oxidation of cis-2-butene
and trans-2-hexene was tested in the presence of NO2 at
different temperatures (from 3 C to 32 C). At low
temperatures, time profiles of measured RO2 radical
concentrations were significantly delayed and lower peak
concentrations were reached than observed in the modelled
RO2 radical time series. The model-measurement agreement
could be significantly improved by including the formation
of non-acyl peroxynitrates (RO2NO2) from the reaction of RO2
with NO2 in the chemical model for all formed non-acyl
peroxy radicals. The formation of non-acyl RO2NO2, with the
exception of methyl peroxynitrate, is not implemented in
commonly used chemical mechanisms, such as the MCM, as it is
thought to be negligible due to the short lifetime of alkyl
(non-acyl) RO2NO2 of less than 1 s at 298 K. This study
suggests that at 10 C, 60 $\%$ of RO2 radicals are stored as
corresponding peroxynitrates in the presence of only few
ppbv of NO2, which may impact ambient RO2 and NOx (= NO+NO2)
concentrations. In addition, a recent model study found an
increase of NOx of up to 25 $\%$ on the ground, when
including the formation of non-acyl RO2NO2. This suggests
that these reactions should be included in chemical
mechanisms for a better representation of the underlying
chemistry.},
cin = {ICE-3},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)ICE-3-20101013},
pnm = {2111 - Air Quality (POF4-211)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-2111},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)3 / PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
doi = {10.34734/FZJ-2024-06496},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1033616},
}