Financial support from the Electric Power Research Institute.
Climatic changes -- Effect of human beings on, Air -- Pollution, Amines, Atmospheric aerosols -- Composition
Amines in the atmosphere are of interest because of their likely role in new particle formation, and because of anthropogenic emissions of amines at post-combustion carbon capture (PCCC) facilities. A conceptual framework for considering the partitioning of a monobasic amine (Am = unprotonated "free-base form) from the gas phase to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is presented for cases when the PM may be composed of multiple liquid phases. Three types of liquid phases are considered as being individually or simultaneously possible for absorptive uptake of atmospheric amines: w) a mostly water phase; α ) a mostly (by mass) organic phase that has at least some polarity (e.g., predominantly secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and may contain significant water on a mole fraction basis); and ß) a mostly organic phase that is less polar than an a phase (e.g., predominantly primary organic aerosol (POA), containing little water). That one or more salts may contain the aminium ion AmH+ (formed by protonation of Am) is subject to the fact that the trace levels of individual amines in the atmosphere make formation of pure solid such as AmHHSO4(s) exceedingly unlikely: when solid salts of AmH+ are indeed present, by far the most likely form is as a solid solution, e.g.,(NH+4)1-y(AmH+)HSO-4(s) where y <<1.
Pankow, J. F. (2015). Phase Considerations in the Gas/Particle Partitioning of Organic Amines in the Atmosphere. Atmospheric Environment.