The key role of nanoparticle concentration gradient in aerosol initial growth
Abstract
Abstract New particle formation has been estimated to produce more than half of the global cloud condensation nuclei and profoundly impacts clouds, climate, and air quality. The initial growth from the cluster size ( ~ 1 nm) to a few nanometers, for which the underlying mechanisms can be very different from the subsequent growth, is the most critical stage for new particles to become climate-relevant. However, initial growth mechanisms evidenced by controlled laboratory experiments can rarely explain observations from the real atmosphere. Here we show that a large nanoparticle concentration gradient in the size space can drive unexpected rapid initial growth based on measurements across the globe. It accelerates the condensation of globally abundant oxygenated organic molecules onto a population of new particles compared to a single particle, and substantially increases the fraction of new particles that survive to climate- and air-quality-relevant sizes. Our findings provide insights into explaining the puzzle of the frequent new particle formation events in polluted urban environments and indicate an even more important role of new particle formation in climate predictions.
Article Details
Authors (31)
Runlong Cai
Institute for atmospheric and earth system research (INAR/physics)
Xiaoxiao Li
Department of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University
Yuyang Li
Department of Chemistry, Advanced Institute of Future Energy, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, State Key Laboratory of Porous Materials for Separation and Conversion
Sara Blichner
Dominik Stolzenburg
Qiaozhi Zha
Jing Cai
Wei Nie
Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Nanoscale Operando CO Photo-Electrocatalysis
Chao Yan
Dan Dan Huang
Zhe Wang
Jin Wu
Rujing Yin
Nina Sarnela
Wei Huang
Santeri Tuovinen
Sebastian Holm
Lauri Ahonen
Lei Yao
Aijun Ding
Federico Bianchi
Yongchun Liu
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Paul M. Winkler
Tuukka Petäjä
Jianmin Chen
Veli-Matti Kerminen
Lin Wang
Douglas Worsnop
Jingkun Jiang
Markku Kulmala
Juha Kangasluoma