Water uptake properties of internally mixed sodium halide and succinic acid particles

Abstract Sea salt aerosols include appreciable fractions of organic material, that can affect properties such as hygroscopicity, phase transition or chemical reactivity. Although sodium chloride is the major component of marine salt, bromide and iodide ions tend to accumulate onto particle surfaces and influence their behaviour. The hygroscopic properties of internally mixed submicrometric particles composed of succinic acid (SA) and NaX (where X = F, Cl, Br or I) have been studied by infrared absorption spectroscopy in an aerosol flow cell at ambient temperature for different relative succinic acid/NaX compositions. The results show that deliquescence relative humidities of SA/NaF and SA/NaCl are equal to those of the pure sodium halides. SA/NaBr particles, on the other hand, deliquesce at lower relative humidities than pure NaBr particles, the effect being more marked as the SA/NaBr mass ratio approaches unity. The SA/NaI system behaves as a non-deliquescent system, absorbing liquid water at all relative humidities, as in pure NaI. Succinic acid phase in the particles has been spectroscopically monitored at given values of both RH and SA/NaX solute mass ratio. The different hygroscopic properties as the halogen ion is changed can be rationalized in terms of simple thermodynamic arguments and can be attributed to the relative contributions of ion–molecule interactions in the solid particles. The observed behaviour is of interest for tropospheric sea salt aerosols mixed with organic acids.