Understanding the Impact of High-NOx conditions on the Formation of Secondary Organic Aerosol in the Photooxidation of Oil Sands Related Precursors

Oil sands (OS) are an important type of heavy oil deposit, whose operations in Alberta, Canada were recently found to be a large source of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). However, SOA formation from the OS mining, processing, and subsequent tailings, especially in the presence of NOx, remains unclear. Here, photooxidation experiments for OS-related precursors under high-NOx conditions were performed using an oxidation flow reactor, in which ~95% of peroxy radicals (RO2) react with NO. The SOA yields under high-NOx conditions were found to be lower than yields under low-NOx conditions for all precursors, which is likely due to the higher volatilities of the products from the RO2+NO pathway compared with RO2+HO2. The SOA yields under high-NOx conditions show a strong dependence on preexisting surface area (not observed in previous low-NOx experiments), again attributed to the higher product volatilities. Comparing the mass spectra of SOA formed from different precursors, we conclude that the fraction of m/...