Permeability of acetic acid through organic films at the air-aqueous interface

Recent field studies of collected aerosol particles, both marine and continental, show that the outermost layers contain long-chain (C >or= 18) organics. The presence of these long-chain organics could impede the transport of gases and other volatile species across the interface. This could effect the particle's composition, lifetime, and heterogeneous chemistry. In this study, the uptake rate of acetic acid vapor across a clean interface and through films of long-chain organics into an aqueous subphase solution containing an acid-base indicator (bromocresol green) was measured under ambient conditions using visible absorption spectroscopy. Acetic acid is a volatile organic compound (VOC) and is an atmospherically relevant organic acid. The uptake of acetic acid through single-component organic films of 1-octadecanol (C(18)H(38)O), 1-triacontanol (C(30)H(62)O), cis-9-octadecen-1-ol (C(18)H(36)O), and nonacosane (C(29)H(60)) in addition to two mixed films containing equimolar 1-triacontanol/nonacosane and equimolar 1-triacontanol/cis-9-octadecen-1-ol was determined. These species represent long-chain organic compounds that reside at the air-aqueous interface of atmospheric aerosols. The cis-9-octadecen-1-ol film had little effect on the net uptake rate of acetic acid vapor into solution; however, the uptake rate was reduced by almost one-half by an interfacial film of 1-triacontanol. The measured uptake rates were used to calculate the permeability of acetic acid through the various films which ranged from 1.5 x 10(-3) cm s(-1) for 1-triacontanol, the least permeable film, to 2.5 x 10(-2) cm s(-1) for cis-9-octadecen-1-ol, the most permeable film. Both mixed films had permeabilities that were between that of the single-component films comprising the mixture. This shows that the permeability of a mixed film may not be solely determined by the most permeable species in the mixture. The permeabilities of all the films studied here are discussed in relation to their molecular properties, pressure-area isotherms, and atmospheric implications.