Environmental Chamber Study of Maximum Incremental Reactivities of Volatile Organic Compounds

The effects of 26 individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on ozone formation, NO oxidation, and OH radical levels were measured by adding them to reactive organic gas (ROG) NOx air environmental chamber irradiations representing a simplified model photochemical smog system. These experiments had relatively low ROG/NOx ratios to represent conditions where ozone formation is most sensitive to VOC additions. The compounds studied included representative alkanes, alkenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, and CO. The addition of formaldehyde, methylbenzenes, alkenes and methanol all caused increased integrated OH radical concentrations, and caused the most NO oxidation and ozone formation per molecule reacted. The C6+ n-alkanes had the most inhibiting effects on OH radicals, and caused reduced NO oxidation and ozone formation in these experiments. The other compounds had smaller negative effects on OH radicals, but moderate positive effects on ozone formed and NO oxidized. The implications of these results in terms of the atmospheric reaction mechanisms of these compounds are discussed.