Review of Recent Smog Chamber Studies for Secondary Organic Aerosol

A smog chamber has been an effective tool to study air quality, particularly secondary organic aerosol (SOA), which is typically formed by atmospheric oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In controlled environments, smog chamber studies have validated atmospheric oxidation by identifying, quantifying and monitoring products with state-of-art instruments (e.g., aerosol mass spectrometer, scanning mobility particle sizer) and provided chemical insights of SOA formation by elucidating reaction mechanisms. This paper reviews types of smog chambers and the current state of smog chamber studies that have accomplished to find pathways of SOA formation, focusing on gas-particle partitioning of semivolatile products of VOC oxidation, heterogeneous reactions on aerosol surface, and aqueous chemistry in aerosol waters (e.g., cloud/fog droplets and wet aerosols). For future chamber studies, then, this paper discusses potential formation pathways of fine particles that East Asia countries (e.g., Korea and China) currently suffer from due to massive formation that gives rise to fatal health problems.