Search

This study presents a new, improved parameterisation of the temperature dependence of activity coefficients in the AIOMFAC (Aerosol Inorganic–Organic Mixtures Functional groups Activity Coefficients) model applicable for aqueous as well as water-free organic solutions. For electrolyte-free organic and organic–water mixtures the AIOMFAC model uses a group-contribution approach based on UNIFAC (UNIversal quasi-chemical Functional-group Activity Coefficients). This group-contribution approach explicitly accounts for interactions among organic functional groups and between organic functional groups and water. The previous AIOMFAC version uses a simple parameterisation of the temperature dependence of activity coefficients, aimed to be applicable in the temperature range from ~ 275 to ~ 400 K. With the goal to improve the description of a wide variety of organic compounds found in atmospheric aerosols, we extend the AIOMFAC parameterisation for the functional groups carboxyl, hydroxyl, ketone, aldehyde, ether, ester, alkyl, aromatic carbon-alcohol, and aromatic hydrocarbon to atmospherically relevant low temperatures. To this end we introduce a new parameterisation for the temperature dependence. The improved temperature dependence parameterisation is derived from classical thermodynamic theory by describing effects from changes in molar enthalpy and heat capacity of a multi-component system. Thermodynamic equilibrium data of aqueous organic and water-free organic mixtures from the literature are carefully assessed and complemented with new measurements to establish a comprehensive database, covering a wide temperature range (~ 190 to ~ 440 K) for many of the functional group combinations considered. Different experimental data types and their processing for the estimation of AIOMFAC model parameters are discussed. The new AIOMFAC parameterisation for the temperature dependence of activity coefficients from low to high temperatures shows an overall improvement of 28% in comparison to the previous model version, when both versions are compared to our database of experimentally determined activity coefficients and related thermodynamic data. When comparing the previous and new AIOMFAC model parameterisations to the subsets of experimental data with all temperatures below 274 K or all temperatures above 322 K (i.e. outside a 25 K margin of the reference temperature of 298 K), applying the new parameterisation leads to 37% improvement in each of the two temperature ranges considered. The new parameterisation of AIOMFAC agrees well with a large number of experimental data sets. Larger model–measurement discrepancies were found particularly for some of the systems containing multi-functional organic compounds. The affected systems were typically also poorly represented at room temperature and further improvements will be necessary to achieve better performance of AIOMFAC in these cases (assuming the experimental data are reliable). The performance of the AIOMFAC parameterisation is typically better for systems containing relatively small organic compounds and larger deviations may occur in mixtures where molecules of high structural complexity such as highly oxygenated compounds or molecules of high molecular mass (e.g. oligomers) prevail. Nevertheless, the new parameterisation enables the calculation of activity coefficients for a wide variety of different aqueous/water-free organic solutions down to the low temperatures present in the upper troposphere.

This work presents experimental data of the temperature dependence of water activity in aqueous organic solutions relevant for tropospheric conditions (200–273 K). Water activity (aw) at low temperatures (T) is a crucial parameter for predicting homogeneous ice nucleation. We investigated temperature-dependent water activities, ice freezing and melting temperatures of solutions, and vapour pressures of a selection of atmospherically relevant aqueous organic systems. To measure aw over a wide composition range and with a focus on low temperatures, we use various aw measurement techniques and instruments: a dew point water activity meter, an electrodynamic balance (EDB), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and a setup to measure the total gas phase pressure at equilibrium over aqueous solutions. Water activity measurements were performed for aqueous multicomponent and multifunctional organic mixtures containing the functional groups typically found in atmospheric organic aerosols, such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, ketone, ether, ester, and aromatic groups. The aqueous organic systems studied at several fixed compositions over a considerable temperature range differ significantly in their temperature dependence. Aqueous organic systems of 1,4-butanediol and methoxyacetic acid show a moderate decrease in aw with decreasing temperature. The aqueous M5 system (a multicomponent system containing five different dicarboxylic acids) and aqueous 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)ethanol solutions both show a strong increase of water activity with decreasing temperature at high solute concentrations for T < 270 K and T < 260 K, respectively. These measurements show that the temperature trend of aw can be reversed at low temperatures and that linear extrapolations of high-temperature data may lead to erroneous predictions. To avoid this, experimentally determined aw at low temperature are needed to improve thermodynamic models towards lower temperatures and for improved predictions of the ice nucleation ability of organic–water systems.