Humidity-dependent surface tension measurements of individual inorganic and organic submicrometre liquid particles.

Humidity-dependent surface tension measurements of individual inorganic and organic submicrometre liquid particles† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: SEM image of AFM nanoneedles, force plot data from bulk AFM surface tension, data used for surface tension vs. RH predictions, comparison of AIM and bulk predictions for NaCl. See DOI: 10.1039/c4sc03716b Click here for additional data file.

Effect of Surface Tension from MD Simulations on Size-Dependent Deliquescence of NaCl Nanoparticles

The deliquescence of sodium chloride is size dependent for particles smaller than 100 nm, with some discrepancies between measured and predicted deliquescence relative humidity as a function of size. Two sources of uncertainty in current models are the solid– liquid/solid–vapor surface tensions and the curvature dependence of surface tension. Molecular Dynamics simulations are used to calculate...

Strong evidence of surface tension reduction in microscopic aqueous droplets

[1] The ability of airborne particles to take up water may be enhanced by surface-active components, but the importance of this effect is controversial because direct measurement of the surface tension of microscopic droplets has not been possible. Here we infer droplet surface tension from water uptake measurements of mixed organic-inorganic particles at relative humidities just below saturati...

Joint effect of organic acids and inorganic salts on cloud droplet activation

We have investigated CCN properties of internally mixed particles composed of one organic acid (oxalic acid dihydrate, succinic acid, adipic acid, citric acid, cis-pinonic acid, or Nordic reference fulvic acid) and one inorganic salt (sodium chloride or ammonium sulphate). Surface tension and water activity of aqueous model solutions with concentrations relevant for CCN activation were measured...

Influence of particle-phase state on the hygroscopic behavior of mixed organic–inorganic aerosols

Recent work has demonstrated that organic and mixed organic–inorganic particles can exhibit multiple phase states depending on their chemical composition and on ambient conditions such as relative humidity (RH). To explore the extent to which water uptake varies with particlephase behavior, hygroscopic growth factors (HGFs) of nine laboratory-generated, organic and organic–inorganic aerosol sys...