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European Geosciences Union, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 12(14), p. 6035-6048, 2014

DOI: 10.5194/acp-14-6035-2014

European Geosciences Union, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 4(14), p. 4421-4456

DOI: 10.5194/acpd-14-4421-2014

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Heterogeneous reaction of N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> with airborne TiO<sub>2</sub> particles and its implication for stratospheric particle injection

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Injection of aerosol particles (or their precursors) into the stratosphere to scatter solar radiation back into space has been suggested as a solar-radiation management scheme for the mitigation of global warming. TiO 2 has recently been highlighted as a possible candidate particle because of its high refractive index, but its impact on stratospheric chemistry via heterogeneous reactions is as yet unknown. In this work the heterogeneous reaction of airborne sub-micrometre TiO 2 particles with N 2 O 5 has been investigated for the first time, at room temperature and different relative humidities (RH), using an atmospheric pressure aerosol flow tube. The uptake coefficient of N 2 O 5 onto TiO 2 , γ(N 2 O 5 ), was determined to be ~1.0 × 10 −3 at low RH, increasing to ~3 × 10 −3 at 60% RH. The uptake of N 2 O 5 onto TiO 2 is then included in the UKCA chemistry–climate model to assess the impact of this reaction on stratospheric chemistry. While the impact of TiO 2 on the scattering of solar radiation is chosen to be similar to the aerosol from the Mt Pinatubo eruption, the impact of TiO 2 injection on stratospheric N 2 O 5 is much smaller.