The effectiveness of the coagulation sink of 3–10 nm atmospheric particles

Abstract

As a major source of ultrafine particles, new particle formation (NPF) occurs frequently in various environments. However, the survival of new particles and the frequent occurrence of NPF events in polluted environments have long been perplexing, since new particles are expected to be scavenged by high coagulation sinks. Towards solving these problems, we establish an experimental method and directly measure the effectiveness of the size-dependent coagulation sink of monodisperse 3–10 nm particles in well-controlled chamber experiments. Based on the chamber experiments and long-term atmospheric measurements from Beijing, we then discuss the survival of new particles in polluted environments. In the chamber experiments, the measured coagulation sink of 3–10 nm particles increases significantly with a decreasing particle size, whereas it is not sensitive to the compositions of test particles. Comparison between the measured coagulation coefficient with theoretical predictions shows that almost every coagulation leads to the scavenging of one particle, and the coagulation sink exceeds the hard-sphere kinetic limit due to van der Waals attractive force. For urban Beijing, the effectiveness of the coagulation sink and a moderate or high (e.g., > 3 nm h−1) growth rate of new particles can explain the occurrence of measured NPF events; the moderate growth rate further implies that, in addition to gaseous sulfuric acid, other gaseous precursors also contribute to the growth of new particles.