Characterization of Size-Resolved Hygroscopicity of Black Carbon-Containing Particle in Urban Environment

The black carbon (BC) aerosol has important radiative and environmental impacts due to its strong absorption on solar radiation. The hygroscopicity of BC is the key to determine its lifetime in the atmosphere and its interaction with clouds. However, the hygroscopic properties of BC are difficult to be characterized due to the difficulty in isolating the BC with other aerosol species using most techniques, which leads to lack of information regarding the BC hygroscopicity in real world.

In the study, Wu et al (2019) examined the BC hygroscopicity by directly measuring the detailed compositions and size distribution, only for BC-containing particles (BCc) in the ambient.

Figure 1. Abstract Graphic

The size resolved hygroscopicity parameter of BCc in high time-resolution is characterized, and by combing with the measured coated BC size distribution the activation faction of BCc under certain superstation could be obtained.

This study provides direct results of size-resolved hygroscopicity of BC-containing particles, and such information could be applied to evaluate the BC wet scavenging and indirect radiative impacts, in terms of surface anthropogenic CCN sources containing BC.

This new study of Prof. Dantong Liu’s group has been published online by Environmental Scicence & Technology (NI, IF=7.1). The first author of this study is Yangzhou Wu, a post doctor in Prof. Dantong Liu’s group. This work was supported by the National Key R&D programme of China and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

For Details: Wu, Yangzhou; Liu, Dantong; Wang, Junfeng; Shen, Fuzhen; Chen, Yanfang; Cui, Shijie; Ge, Shun; Wu, Yun; Chen, Mindong. Ge, Xinlei. Characterization of size-resolved hygroscopicity of black carbon-containing particle in urban environment, Environmental Science & Technology, 2019, 53 (24), 14212-14221.

LINK: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b05546