Kinetics and mechanisms of atmospheric hydrocarbon oxidation and particle formation

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Every cubic centimeter of air contains hundreds to over a hundred thousand fine particles with diameters less than one micrometer. These particles can absorb and scatter sunlight and also act as the nuclei on which cloud droplets form. As a result, they play a major role in climate; our incomplete knowledge of how these particles form is a major cause of uncertainty in global climate models. It has also been demonstrated that these particles have a significant negative impact on human health. Fine particles are largely formed by a process called gas-to-particle conversion in which gases, such as sulfur dioxide, aromatic hydrocarbons (from petroleum products) and terpenes (emitted by plants) undergo reactions that convert them to compounds, such as sulfuric acid and oxygenated organic compounds, that form solid and liquid particles.