Uptake of isoprene, methacrylic acid and methyl methacrylate into aqueous solutions of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide

Multiphase acid-catalyzed oxidation by hydrogen peroxide has been suggested to be a potential route to secondary organic aerosol formation from isoprene and its gas-phase oxidation products, but the lack of kinetics data significantly limited the evaluation of this process in the atmosphere. Here we report the first measurement of the uptake of isoprene, methacrylic acid and methyl methacrylate into aqueous solutions of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Isoprene cannot readily partition into the solution because of its high volatility and low solubility, which hinders its further liquid-phase oxidation. Both methacrylic acid and methyl methacrylate can enter the solutions and be oxidized by hydrogen peroxide, and steady-state uptake was observed with the acidity of solution above 30 wt.% and 70 wt.%, respectively. The steady-state uptake coefficient of methacrylic acid is much larger than that of methyl methacrylate for a solution with same acidity. These observations can be explained by the different reactivity of these two compounds caused by the different electron-withdrawing conjugation between carboxyl and ester groups. The atmospheric lifetimes were estimated based on the calculated steady-state uptake coefficients. These results demonstrate that the multiphase acid-catalyzed oxidation of methacrylic acid plays a role in secondary organic aerosol formation, but for isoprene and methyl methacrylate, this process is not important in the troposphere.