Ion balances of size-resolved tropospheric aerosol samples: implications for the acidity and atmospheric processing of aerosols

A large set of size-resolved aerosol samples was inspected with regard to their ion balance to shed light on how the aerosol acidity changes with particle size in the lower troposphere and what implications this might have for the atmospheric processing of aerosols. Quite different behaviour between the remote and more polluted environments could be observed. At the remote sites, practically the whole accumulation mode had cation-to-anion ratios clearly below unity, indicating that these particles were quite acidic. The supermicron size range was considerably less acidic and may in some cases have been close to neutral or even alkaline. An interesting feature common to the remote sites was a clear jump in the cation-to-anion ratio when going from the accumulation to the Aitken mode. The most likely reason for this was cloud processing which, via in-cloud sulphate production, makes the smallest accumulation-mode particles more acidic than the non-activated Aitken-mode particles. A direct consequence of the less acidic nature of the Aitken mode is that it can take up semi-volatile, water-soluble gases much easier than the accumulation mode. This feature may have significant implications for atmospheric cloud condensation nuclei production in remote environments. In rural and urban locations, the cation-to-anion ratio was close to unity over most of the accumulation mode, but increased significantly when going to either larger or smaller particle sizes. The high cation-to-anion ratios in the supermicron size range were ascribed to carbonate associated with mineral dust. The ubiquitous presence of carbonate in these particles indicates that they were neutral or alkaline, making them good sites for heterogeneous reactions involving acidic trace gases. The high cation-to-anion ratios in the Aitken mode suggest that these particles contained some water-soluble anions not detected by our chemical analysis. This is worth keeping in mind when investigating the hygroscopic properties or potential health effects of ultrafine particles in polluted environments.