Monomers of Glycine and Serine Have a Limited Ability to Hydrate in the Atmosphere

The role of atmospheric aerosols on climate change is one of the biggest uncertainties in most global climate models. Organic aerosols have been identified as potential cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and amino acids are organic molecules that could serve as CCN. Amino acids make up a significant portion of the total organic material in the atmosphere, and herein we present a systematic study of hydration for two of the most common atmospheric amino acids, glycine and serine. We compute DLPNO/CCSD(T)//M08-HX/MG3S thermodynamic properties and atmospheric concentrations of Gly(H2O)n and Ser(H2O)n, where n = 1–5. We predict that serine–water clusters have higher concentrations at n = 1 and 5, while glycine–water clusters have higher concentrations at n = 2–4. However, both glycine and serine are inferred to exist primarily in their nonhydrated monomer forms in the absence of other species such as sulfuric acid.