Isoprene oxidation products got your aerosol surface tension down?

The final version of our manuscript, Climate-relevant physical properties of molecular constituents relevant for isoprene-derived secondary organic aerosol material, was published today in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics!  This work was a result of a collaboration between the McNeill Group and the Geiger and Thomson groups at Northwestern University (the Geiger group led the project) .  This work shows that oxidation products of isoprene, a volatile organic compound emitted in large quantities by plants all over the world, can form films on the surfaces of aerosol particles and depress their surface tension.  This effect can lead to enhanced cloud formation and suppressed aerosol heterogeneous chemistry.

Climate-relevant physical properties of molecular constituents for isoprene-derived secondary organic aerosol material. M. A. Upshur, B. F. Strick, V. F. McNeill, R. J. Thomson, and F. M. Geiger Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10731-10740 (2014)