J. Phys. Chem. A 2010, 114, 379–386
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Cloud Droplet Activation of Amino Acid Aerosol Particles Adam Kristensson,*,†,‡ Thomas Rosenørn,†,§ and Merete Bilde† Department of Chemistry, UniVersity of Copenhagen, UniVersitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark, DiVision of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Lund UniVersity, P.O. Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden, and Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse et l’EnVironnement de Lyon, UMR 5256 CNRS/UniVersite´ Lyon 1, 2 aVenue Albert Einstein, F-69629 Villeurbanne Cedex, France ReceiVed: June 12, 2009; ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed: NoVember 20, 2009
In this work we investigated the ability of a series of amino acids to act as cloud condensation nuclei using a static thermal gradient diffusion type cloud condensation nucleus counter. Particles of pure dry L-glycine, glycyl-glycine, L-serine, L-methionine, L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid, and L-tyrosine were studied as well as internally mixed dry particles containing ammonium sulfate and one or two of the following amino acids: L-methionine, L-aspartic acid, or L-tyrosine. The amino acids ranged in water solubility from high (>100 g/L), intermediate (10-100 g/L), low (3-10 g/L), to very low (100 g L-1), intermediate solubility (10-100 g L-1), low solubility (3-10 g L-1), and very low solubility (
