Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation and Organic Nitrate Yield from NO(3) Oxidation of Biogenic Hydrocarbons

[Image: see text] The secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass yields from NO(3) oxidation of a series of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), consisting of five monoterpenes and one sesquiterpene (α-pinene, β-pinene, Δ-3-carene, limonene, sabinene, and β-caryophyllene), were investigated in a series of continuous flow experiments in a 10 m(3) indoor Teflon chamber. By making in situ measurements of the nitrate radical and employing a kinetics box model, we generate time-dependent yield curves as a function of reacted BVOC. SOA yields varied dramatically among the different BVOCs, from zero for α-pinene to 38–65% for Δ-3-carene and 86% for β-caryophyllene at mass loading of 10 μg m(–3), suggesting that model mechanisms that treat all NO(3) + monoterpene reactions equally will lead to errors in predicted SOA depending on each location’s mix of BVOC emissions. In most cases, organonitrate is a dominant component of the aerosol produced, but in the case of α-pinene, little organonitrate and no aerosol is formed.