Effect of dry or wet substrate deposition on the organic volume fraction of core–shell aerosol particles

Abstract

Understanding the impact of sea spray aerosol (SSA) on the climate and atmosphere requires quantitative knowledge of their chemical composition and mixing states. Furthermore, single-particle measurements are needed to accurately represent large particle-to-particle variability. To quantify the mixing state, the organic volume fraction (OVF), defined as the relative organic volume with respect to the total particle volume, is measured after generating and collecting aerosol particles, often using deposition impactors. In this process, the aerosol streams are either dried or kept wet prior to impacting on solid substrates. However, the atmospheric community has yet to establish how dry versus wet aerosol deposition influences the impacted particle morphologies and mixing states. Here, we apply complementary offline single-particle atomic force microscopy (AFM) and bulk ensemble high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques to assess the effects of dry and wet deposition modes on the substrate-deposited aerosol particles' mixing states. Glucose and NaCl binary mixtures that form core–shell particle morphologies were studied as model systems, and the mixing states were quantified by measuring the OVF of individual particles using AFM and compared to the ensemble measured by HPLC. Dry-deposited single-particle OVF data positively deviated from the bulk HPLC data by up to 60 %, which was attributed to significant spreading of the NaCl core upon impaction with the solid substrate. This led to underestimation of the core volume. This problem was circumvented by (a) performing wet deposition and thus bypassing the effects of the solid core spreading upon impaction and (b) performing a hydration–dehydration cycle on dry-deposited particles to restructure the deformed NaCl core. Both approaches produced single-particle OVF values that converge well with the bulk and expected OVF values, validating the methodology. These findings illustrate the importance of awareness in how conventional particle deposition methods may significantly alter the impacted particle morphologies and their mixing states.