Aromatics, Reformulated Gasoline, and Atmospheric Organic Aerosol Formation

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) yield curves have been obtained for 17 individual aromatic species from an extensive series of sunlight-irradiated smog chamber experiments. These yield curves, interpreted within the framework of a gas/aerosol absorption model, are used to quantitatively account for the SOA that is formed in a series of smog chamber experiments performed with the whole vapor of 12 different reformulated gasolines. The total amount of secondary organic aerosol produced from the atmospheric oxidation of whole gasoline vapor can be represented as the sum of the contributions of the individual aromatic molecular constituents of the fuel.