This award supports Professor E. James Davis and graduate students of the University of Washington to collaborate in their research in aerosol chemistry with Professor Gustav Schweiger of the Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany. They share an interest in chemical reactions in aerosols which are associated with atmospheric pollution and ozone depletion. Professor Davis has unique facilities featuring the coupling of electrodynamic balances with Raman spectroscopy, which are particularly well suited for the study of relatively slow gas/aerosol chemical reactions. Professor Schweiger has developed unique facilities which combine the vibrating orifice drop generator with Raman instruments, an approach which is well-suited to the study of rapid reactions. Joining of their complementary expertise and facilities will be mutually beneficial. Microparticles play an important role in atmospheric phenomena. Condensation nuclei affect cloud microphysics, and nucleation and growth phenomena dominate cloud physics. In addition to their chemical role, microdroplets can serve as optical cavities, and resonances arise from interference of the internally reflected and refracted light, which complicate analytical inferences. This collaboration addresses the interaction between elastic and inelastic (Raman) scattering which is unique to microdroplets, and how this interaction affects measurement of chemical reactions of particular significance in atmospheric chemistry.
