ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Are thin films on night and day aqueous aerosol different?

Abstract: The size, shape and refractive index of atmospheric aerosol controls the amount of sunlight scattered back to space and is a poorly characterized modern climate cooling mechanism. The size, shape and refractive index of atmospheric aerosol changes with atmospheric oxidation, by OH radical - photochemistry during the day, nitrate radical at night and ozone both day and night. Naturally occurring surfactant forms the shell or film on core-shell aerosol. The thickness and resistance to atmospheric oxidation of this film is critical to atmospheric science. We have collected nearly 24 months of night-time and day-time aerosol from an urban atmosphere and wish to measure the film thickness and reaction with OH radical at the air-water interface. A film thickness of >10Å and oxidation lifetime between 1 hour and 10 days require inclusion in atmospheric models and a difference in film thickness of 2 Å and a difference in oxidation lifetime of ~30% between day and night would be meaningful difference.

Principal Investigator: Professor Martin King
Experimenter: Miss Sophie Burr
Local Contact: Dr Maxmilian Skoda
Experimenter: Dr Rebecca Welbourn
Experimenter: Dr Axel Christian Eriksson
Experimenter: Dr Andy Ward
Experimenter: Miss Yazareth Pena Rodriguez
Experimenter: Miss Megan Poole

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2520078

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2520078

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Martin King et al; (2025): Are thin films on night and day aqueous aerosol different?, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2520078

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.