Illuminating an 8 m3 environmental chamber for atmospheric photochemistry for air quality

大气化学家和暴露科学家在实验室模拟大气，研究与人类健康和气候有关的化学变化。用于大气研究的“圆底烧瓶”和“反应容器”是环境室。所要求的基础设施是一个开创性的发光二极管（LED）设置照射光化学研究的环境室。去年，Borduas-Dedekind博士在她位于英国哥伦比亚大学的独特的高天花板化学实验室中建造了一个基本的8立方米立方体环境室。然而，该会议室迫切需要所需的照明基础设施，以启动一项跨学科的研究计划，研究大气中的光化学过程，如OH自由基氧化和烟雾形成。如果没有这些灯，UBC和温哥华岛大学目前的化学和医学HQP就无法推进他们在模拟阳光下评估污染物命运的研究项目。这些资金将用于支持首个由LED照明的大型环境室，该环境室能够在相同的基础设施内研究平流层，对流层和室内空气化学。环境室将使用定制LED（Violumas）操作275、300、365、400、500和600 nm的窄且可调谐的发射波长，从而能够使用一个、一些或所有波长来控制室外和室内过程的辐照度。这一基础设施将每天使用，预期寿命至少为20年，被认为是低风险和高影响的。目前在UBC或加拿大没有类似的室，我们迫切需要的规格：大型（气相和暴露研究），模块化（批量模式和连续模式实验）和点燃（OH自由基和NOx化学）。因此，我们的模块化LED环境室将成为UBC空气质量合作研究项目的中心，以研究大气分子的命运并培养下一代科学家。拟议的环境室将使研究紧急课题成为可能：从大麻排放物的化学成分到野火的光化学变化，再到硒的地球化学循环和个人云化学。UBC的共同申请人团队是气相化学和光化学方面的专家（Borduas-D.），气溶胶化学和物理（Bertram）、污染物归宿和移动的测量（Krogh）、运动员的空气污染暴露（Koehle），确保照明环境舱的建造、运行和HQP培训的成功。研究成果将包括与政府和行业利益相关者相关的高质量数据，以预测污染物的命运和暴露结果。了解模拟阳光条件下化合物的化学反应性和转化产物对于预测、调节和减轻加拿大人的暴露是必要的。

Atmospheric chemists and exposure scientists simulate the atmosphere in the laboratory to study chemical transformations related to human health and climate. The `round bottom flask' and `reaction vessel' for atmospheric studies are environmental chambers. The requested infrastructure is a pioneering light emitting diodes (LEDs) setup to irradiate an environmental chamber for photochemical studies. Last year, Dr. Borduas-Dedekind built a basic 8m3 cubic environmental chamber in her unique high-ceiling lab in Chemistry at the University of British-Columbia. However, this chamber urgently needs the requested lighting infrastructure to launch an interdisciplinary research program studying photochemical processes in the atmosphere, such as OH radical oxidation and smog formation. Without these lights, current HQP in Chemistry and Medicine at UBC and at Vancouver Island University cannot move forward with their research projects on evaluating the fate of pollutants under simulated sunlight. The funds will support a first-of-its-kind large environmental chamber illuminated by LEDs and capable of studying stratospheric, tropospheric and indoor air chemistry within the same infrastructure. The environmental chamber will operate narrow and tunable emission wavelengths of 275, 300, 365, 400, 500 and 600 nm using custom LEDs (Violumas), enabling the use of one, some or all wavelengths for controlled irradiance of outdoor and indoor processes. This infrastructure will be used daily, is intended to have a lifetime of at least 2 decades and is considered to be low risk and high impact. There currently exists no comparable chamber at UBC or in Canada with the specifications we urgently need: large (for gas phase and exposure research), modular (for batch mode and continuous mode experiments) and lit (for OH radical and NOx chemistry). Thus, our modular LED environmental chamber will become the center for air quality collaborative research programs at UBC to study the fate of atmospheric molecules and train the next generation of scientists. The proposed environmental chamber will enable the study of emergent topics: from the chemical composition of cannabis emissions to wildfire photochemical changes to biogeochemical cycling of selenium and to personal cloud chemistry. The team of co-applicants at UBC are experts in gas-phase chemistry and photochemistry (Borduas-D.), aerosol chemistry and physics (Bertram), contaminant fate and mobile measurements (Krogh), air pollution exposure in athletes (Koehle), ensuring the success of the construction, operation and HQP training of the illuminated environmental chamber. The research output will include high quality data relevant for government and industry stakeholders to predict the fate of pollutants and exposure outcomes. Understanding the chemical reactivity and transformation products of compounds under simulated sunlight conditions is necessary to predicting, regulating, and mitigating exposure for Canadians.