Smog Chamber Experiments of SOA Formation from Gasoline Exhaust and Light Aromatics

Abstract

Experiments where gasoline exhaust was exposed to UV-radiation to examine Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) formation were performed in a smog chamber. The Aerosol Mass Yield (formed SOA/reacted precursor mass) was determined and compared with the yield from a pure precursor experiment in the chamber and from results reported in literature. Preliminary results show that the majority of the organic aerosol mass emitted from idling gasoline cars is secondary. Further, the SOA yields when taking only C6-C10 light aromatics into account are within a similar range to pure precursor experiments, suggesting that light aromatics are dominating precursors in gasoline exhaust SOA.

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