Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3327–3344, 2016 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3327/2016/ doi:10.5194/acp-16-3327-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Molecular corridors and parameterizations of volatility in the chemical evolution of organic aerosols Ying Li1,2, Ulrich Pöschl1, and Manabu Shiraiwa1 1Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany 2State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Correspondence to: Manabu Shiraiwa (
[email protected]) Received: 23 September 2015 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 15 October 2015 Revised: 1 March 2016 – Accepted: 3 March 2016 – Published: 14 March 2016 Abstract. The formation and aging of organic aerosols (OA) 1 Introduction proceed through multiple steps of chemical reaction and mass transport in the gas and particle phases, which is chal- lenging for the interpretation of field measurements and lab- Organic aerosols (OA) consist of a myriad of chemical oratory experiments as well as accurate representation of species and account for a substantial mass fraction (20–90 %) OA evolution in atmospheric aerosol models. Based on data of the total submicron particles in the troposphere (Jimenez from over 30 000 compounds, we show that organic com- et al., 2009; Nizkorodov et al., 2011). They influence regional pounds with a wide variety of functional groups fall into and global climate by affecting radiative budget of the at- molecular corridors, characterized by a tight inverse cor- mosphere and serving as nuclei for cloud droplets and ice relation between molar mass and volatility.