ERI:

UCR ERI ARPC

Air Pollution Research Center
Director: Roger Atkinson

Concept:

The Air Pollution Research Center (APRC) is an Organized Research Unit at the University of California Riverside campus which was established in the early 1960's to conduct basic and applied research into the chemical processes responsible for the formation of photochemical air pollution and to investigate the effects of air pollution on plants. Since 1995, the majority of APRC's research has been concerned with the atmospheric transformations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from anthropogenic and biogenic sources, and the role of these organic compounds in the formation of ozone and secondary organic aerosol in urban and regional atmospheres.
Goals:
The goals of current projects within the APRC include: understanding the formation of toxic air pollutants from the atmospheric reactions of organic compounds to aid in determining health risks associated with vehicle emissions; understanding the kinetics, products and mechanisms of the atmospheric degradation reactions of organic compounds; development of chemical mechanisms for use in urban and regional airshed computer models; development of VOC reactivity scales (especially since new data indicate serious problems with aromatic mechanisms); understanding the spectroscopy, thermodynamics, photochemistry, reaction pathways and mechanisms of reactions of small free radicals of atmospheric relevance; development of methods to measure key intermediate chemicals in the atmosphere; understanding the chemical reactions responsible for the formation of secondary organic aerosol and identifying the aerosol-phase chemicals formed in these reactions; and understanding the biochemical pathways responsible for the effects of ozone on plants (and specifically on agriculturally important plants).

Research Agenda:
The research of the seven APRC faculty: Janet Arey, APRC and Environmental Sciences; Roger Atkinson, APRC and Environmental Sciences; William P. L. Carter, CE-CERT and APRC; David A. Grantz, Botany & Plant Sciences and APRC; Jingsong Zhang, Chemistry and APRC; and Paul J. Ziemann, APRC and Environmental Sciences, are briefly summarized below.
Dr. Arey's research involves environmental chamber studies aimed at identifying the products of atmospheric reactions of organic compounds by utilizing chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. Her interests include studies of the formation of mutagenic compounds in the atmosphere and the sampling and analysis of these species in ambient atmospheres.

Dr. Atkinson's research interests involve experimental studies of the kinetics, products and mechanisms of the gas-phase reactions of OH radicals, NO3 radicals and O3 with organic compounds emitted into the atmosphere from anthropogenic and biogenic sources.

Dr. Carter's research concerns the gas-phase reactions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the development of methods for representing them in computer models for photochemical smog formation, and the development of procedures to develop VOC reactivity scales that quantify effects of VOCs on ozone, for use in control strategies.

Dr. Grantz's research and extension education program involves the effects of ozone on physiological processes in agricultural crop plants of importance in California's Central Valley (and especially the effects of ozone on cotton), factors controlling deposition of ozone from the atmosphere to agricultural crops and transport of ozone within crop canopies, and the effects of vegetative and soil surface properties on the emissions and deposition of particulate matter in the Central Valley and in the Mojave desert, including the effectiveness of revegetating abandoned farmland in order to control fugitive dust emissions.

Dr. Zhang's research concerns elementary photochemical processes and reaction mechanisms of atmospheric free radicals and small molecules of relevance to atmospheric chemistry; and the measurement of key species of importance to atmospheric chemistry (for example, nitrous acid and OH radicals).

Dr. Ziemann's research concerns the atmospheric chemistry of gas-to-particle conversion. His interests include experimental studies of the photochemical gas-phase chemistry, homogeneous nucleation, and heterogeneous chemistry involved in secondary aerosol formation from organic compounds and sulfur and nitrogen oxides, formation of particles by combustion (including from diesel fueled vehicles), and the development of instrumentation for aerosol studies.

APRC Website