An Investigation of the Effects of Environmental Factors on Secondary Organic Aerosol (SOA) Formation

To understand the effects of environmental factors, such as the light intensity, reaction time, the concentration of reactant on the growth of secondary organic aerosol is very important. This paper investigated the effect of environmental factors on SOA formation from biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), results show that SOA formed from OH-initiated photooxidation of BVOCs is predominantly in the form of fine particles, which have diameters less than 2.5 µm. This paper also highlighted that both the number and mass concentration of SOA particles were increasing with the prolonging of the radiation time, the increasing of light intensity, and the increasing of the reactant concentrations. The results could provide useful information to infer possible emission sources of atmospheric particles in future field measurement.