Atmospheric aging appears to alter physical and chemical properties of mineral dust aerosol and thus its role as reactive surface in the troposphere. Yet, previous studies in the atmosphere have mainly focused on the pristine surfaces of mineral dust aerosol, and the reactivity of aged mineral dust toward atmospheric trace gases is poorly recognized. This work presents the first laboratory investigation of heterogeneous reactions of gaseous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), an important atmospheric oxidant, on the surfaces of HNO3 and SO2-processed calcium carbonate particles as surrogates of atmospheric mineral dust aged by acidic trace gases. It is found that the processing of the calcium carbonate particles with HNO3 and SO2 has a strong impact on their reactivity toward H2O2. On HNO3-processed particles, the presence of nitrate acts to either decrease or increase H2O2 uptake, greatly depending on RH and surface coverage of nitrate. On SO2-processed particles, the presence of surface sulfite appears to enhance the intrinsic reactivity of the mineral particles due to its affinity for H2O2, and the uptake of H2O2 increases significantly relative to the pristine particles, in particular at high RH. The mechanisms for heterogeneous reactions of H2O2 with these processed particles are discussed, as well as their potential implications on tropospheric chemistry. The results of our study suggest that the reactivity of mineral dust aerosol toward H2O2 and maybe other trace gases is markedly dependent on the chemical composition and coverage of the coatings as well as ambient RH, and thus will vary considerably in different polluted air masses.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are of central importance in the atmosphere because of their close relation to air quality and climate change. As a significant sink for VOCs, the fate of VOCs via heterogeneous reactions may explain the big gap between field and model studies. These reactions play as yet unclear but potentially crucial role in atmospheric processes. In order to better evaluate this reaction pathway, we present the first specific review for the progress of heterogeneous reaction studies on VOCs, including carbonyl compounds, organic acids, alcohols, and so on. Our review focuses on the processes for heterogeneous reactions of VOCs under varying experimental conditions, as well as their implications for trace gas and HOx budget, secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, physicochemical properties of aerosols, and human health. Finally, we propose the future direction for laboratory studies of heterogeneous chemistry of VOCs that should be carried out under more atmospherically relevant conditions, with a special emphasis on the effects of relative humidity and illumination, the multicomponent reaction systems, and reactivity of aged and authentic particles. In particular, more reliable uptake coefficients, based on the abundant elaborate laboratory studies, appropriate calibration, and logical choice criterion, are urgently required in atmospheric models.
Highly efficient plasmonic nanofocusing is numerically predicted in a single step-like microslit, which is placed on a high-index dielectric layer. Because of the high throughput of the impinging light on the wide microslit, highly efficient nanofocusing is achieved in the proposed structure based on the multimode interferences in the microslits, the constructive interference between the transmitted light and the scattered surface plasmon polaritons, and the Fabry-Perot resonator effect in the high-index dielectric layer. Compared with previous nanofocusing structures containing plenty of substructures arranged laterally, the proposed structure has a much smaller lateral dimension because of the vertical arrangement of the microslits. This is of importance for realizing densely integrated plasmonic circuits. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America
