Ozone oxidation of oleic acid surface films decreases aerosol cloud condensation nuclei activity

Heterogeneous oxidation of aerosols composed of pure oleic acid (C 18H34O2, an unsaturated fatty acid commonly found in continental and marine aerosol) by gas-phase O3 is known to increase aerosol hygroscopicity and activity as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Whether this trend is preserved when the oleic acid is internally mixed with other electrolytes is unknown and addressed in this study. We quantify the CCN activity of sodium salt aerosols (NaCl and Na2SO4) internally mixed with sodium oleate (SO) and oleic acid (OA). We find that particles containing roughly one monolayer of SO/OA show similar CCN activity to pure salt particles, whereas a tenfold increase in organic concentration slightly depresses CCN activity. O3 oxidation of these multicomponent aerosols has little effect on the critical diameter for CCN activation for unacidified particles at all conditions studied, and the activation kinetics of the CCN are similar in each case to those of pure salts. SO-containing particles which are acidified to atmospherically relevant pH before analysis in order to form oleic acid, however, show depressed CCN activity upon oxidation. This effect is more pronounced at higher organic concentrations. The behavior after oxidation is consistent with the disappearance of the organic surface film, supported by Köhler Theory Analysis (KTA). The κ-Köhler calculations show a small decrease in hygroscopicity after oxidation. The important implication of this finding is that oxidative aging may not always enhance the hygroscopicity of internally mixed inorganic-organic aerosols. Copyright © 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.