Surface science with aerosols

Experimental surface science with aerosol particles under atmospheric conditions is becoming a realistic possibility. The first part of this critical review focuses on nano-scopic aerosols generated in combustion of organic fuels at ambient pressures. The bizarre shape of soot agglomerates resists a simple definition of size and surface area. Yet a measure of the size known as the mobility diameter can be extracted from the mobility of the particles in their carrier gas. The total surface area must be divided into an active and a passive part. At the active surface, mass, energy, and momentum is exchanged with the molecules of the carrier gas. The active surface thus determines the dynamical properties of the particles. The passive surface is the surface enclosed in the interior as well as the surface in bays or cracks or, with larger particles, in the dead point of the laminar flow; it determines particle properties on a longer time scale. Simple automatic portable sensors measure the number density of airborne particles, their “size” and a characteristic fingerprint of the surface chemistry, making it possible to determine the source from which the particle was emitted. The response time of the sensors is ～1 s, hence one can monitor dynamical changes of the particles such as adsorption of water in the atmosphere. In the second part we examine a number of surface science techniques that have been used to characterize surfaces important to atmospheric chemistry in more detail, in particular the uptake of water and the influence of surfactants. We illustrate the application of these techniques to the investigation of alkali halide surfaces as a function of relative humidity. Finally we give first examples on how infrared spectroscopy and synchrotron-based ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy have been used to study more realistic aerosol particles, under conditions of ambient humidity. These examples show that in situ chemical analysis of the particles is possible with third generation synchrotron X-ray sources. In the near future, X-ray lasers might reveal the fast dynamics of chemical processes as well. Thus it is within reach to study aerosols under the conditions of the stratosphere. Stratospheric aerosols can reduce the insolation of the earth and may become one of the last resorts of humanity to counteract the effects of global warming.