Abundant nitrogenous secondary organic aerosol formation accelerated by cloud processing
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Updated: Jul 9, 2025

Production and Measurement of Organic Particulate Matter in the Harvard Environmental Chamber
Published on: November 18, 2018
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention (LAP), Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
Abstract:
Nitrogenous organic (CHON), crucial for secondary organic aerosol (SOA), forms through poorly studied mechanisms in clouds. Our study explores CHON transformation during cloud processes (CPs). These processes play a vital role in enhancing the variety of CHONs, leading to the formation of CHONs with oxygen atom counts ranging from 1 to 10 and double bond equivalent (DBE) values spanning from 2 to 10. We proposed that the CHONs formed during CPs are formed through aqueous phase reactions with CHO compound precursors via nucleophilic attacks by NH3. This scheme can be account for roughly three-quarters of the CHONs by number in cloud water, and near two-thirds of all CHONs are formed through reactions between NH3 and carbonyl-containing biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) ozonolysis intermediates. This study provides the first insights into the evolution of CHONs during CPs and reveals the significant roles of CPs in the formation of CHONs.
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