Secondary organic aerosol formation from photo-oxidation of unburned fuel: experimental results and implications for aerosol formation from combustion emissions.

We conducted photo-oxidation experiments in a smog chamber to investigate secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from eleven different unburned fuels: commercial gasoline, three types of jet fuel, and seven different diesel fuels. The goals were to investigate the influence of fuel composition on SOA formation and to compare SOA production from unburned fuel to that from diluted exhaust. The trends in SOA production were largely consistent with differences in carbon number and molecular structure of the fuel, i.e., fuels with higher carbon numbers and/or more aromatics formed more SOA than fuels with lower carbon numbers and/or substituted alkanes. However, SOA production from different diesel fuels did not depend strongly on aromatic content, highlighting the important contribution of large alkanes to SOA formation from mixtures of high carbon number (lower volatility) precursors. In comparison to diesels, SOA production from higher volatility fuels such as gasoline appeared to be more sensitive to aromatic content. On the basis of a comparison of SOA mass yields (SOA mass formed per mass of fuel reacted) and SOA composition (as measured by an aerosol mass spectrometer) from unburned fuels and diluted exhaust, unburned fuels may be reasonable surrogates for emissions from uncontrolled engines but not for emissions from engines with after treatment devices such as catalytic converters.