[Smog chamber simulation of ozone formation from atmospheric photooxidation of propane]

Atmospheric photochemical reactions of propane and NO, were simulated with a self-made smog chamber. The effects of relative humidity (RH) and [C3H8]0/[NOx]0 ratio on ozone formation were studied. The results showed that both the maximum ozone concentration and the maximum value of incremental reactivity (IRmax) of propane decreased linearly with increasing RH. Under lower RH conditions, the occurrence time of peak ozone concentration was about 22 h after the beginning of reaction, and IRmax varied from 0.0231 to 0.0391, while under higher RH conditions the occurrence time of peak ozone concentration was 16 h, and IRmax ranged from 0.0172 to 0.0320. During the 20 h of reaction, within the first 12 h RH did not significantly affect the yield of acetone, whereas after 12 h the lower RH condition could lead to relatively greater amount of acetone. During the first 4-20 h of experiments, acetone concentrations ranged from 153 x 10(-9) to 364 x 10(-9) at 17% RH and from 167 x 10(-9) to 302 x 10(-9) at 62% RH, respectively. Maximum ozone concentrations decreased with increasing [C3H8]0/[NOx]0 ratio and a better negative linear relationship between them was obtained under the lower RH conditions. The smog chamber data and the results from simulation of the C3H8-NOx reactions using the sub-mechanism of MCM were compared, and a significant deviation was found between these two results.