AtmChem-5152

This is the web page for the Atmospheric Chemistry II Course at CU-Boulder (CHEM/ATOC-5152). It was first offered in Spring 2015. So far it has been taught by Profs. Paul Ziemann, Joost de Gouw, and Jose-Luis Jimenez.

Organizational Info for Spring 2017

• The class meets Tue & Thu 9:30-10:45 am
• Syllabus & Course Schedule
• Suggested textbooks: Jacob, Finlayson-Pitts & Pitts, Seinfeld & Pandis
• Igor 7 installation & KinSim
• Homeworks & Atm. Chem. Cheat Sheet
• Piazza system for Q&A
• Office Hrs: 15 min before and after each lecture (in the classroom or Jose's Office), or by appointment

Topics, Lecture Notes, and Readings

Note: this list contains material from several course offerings and several professors. There could be some redundancy, and not all topics are covered at the same depth every year.

Introductory Material

• Reading:
  • Chapter 1: Measures of Atmospheric Composition from Jacob

Box models and Kinetics

• • Lecture Notes

Radical Chemistry and Tropospheric O3 Formation

• Reading (required unless marked otherwise):
  • Chapter 3: Simple Models from Jacob
  • Chapter 9: Chemical Kinetics from Jacob
  • Chapter 11: Oxidizing Power of the Troposphere from Jacob (Read from start till end of section 11.3.2.)
  • Tool: KinSim v3.0 kinetics simulator & KinSim help file
  • RSC Report on O3 formation (some sections suggested)

• • Other References (not required)
    • Notes on trop. O3 formation from 5151

VOC oxidation & Secondary Organic Aerosol formation mechanisms

• • Reading: Atkinson & Ziemann SOA review
  • References for material discussed in class
    • Table of Relevant Chemical Structures (From Jacobson)
    • Pankow 1994 on Absorptive Partitioning Theory
    • Donahue 2006 on Volatility Basis Set for Partitioning
    • Pankow & Asher 2008: SIMPOL structure-volatility relationships

Aerosol mechanics

• • Size distributions, condensation / evaporation, gas/particle partitioning and VBS
  • Diffusion and in-particle reactions
  • Aerosol loss mechanisms and inlets
    • Knopf et al., 2015

Introduction to Chambers and Reactors

• • Large Environmental Chambers
  • Introduction to Flow Reactors

Introduction to Aerosol Instrumentation

• • SMPS and CPC
  • Aerosol Mass Spectrometry
    • Reading: HR-ToF-AMS paper
  • Thermal Desorption Particle Beam Mass Spectrometry
  • Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CIMS) (Jose)
    • Reading: I- ToF-CIMS paper

Introduction to Gas-Phase Instrumentation

• CIMS
  • Fundamentals and reaction mechanisms
    • Predicting reaction rates
  • Properties of key CIMS systems: H3O+, acetate, I-, NO3-
  • PTRMS (Joost de Gouw)

Other possible topics

• Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and use of the PET and/or ME-2 software tools
• Introduction to analysis of actual data from instruments (e.g. AMS or CIMS with Igor packages)
• Other topics of direct research-related interest to students and their advisors

Award for Best Grade in the Course

• Spring 2017: TBD
• Spring 2015: Demetrios Pagonis (CHEM, Ziemann group)