Utility of Environmental AFM for Measuring the Hygroscopic Properties of Atmospheric Aerosols

Atmospheric aerosols affect both global and regional climate by altering the radiative balance of the atmosphere and acting as cloud condensation nuclei. Despite an increased focus on the research of atmospheric aerosols due to concerns about global climate change, current methods to measure the hygroscopic properties of aerosols are limited in various ways by experimental procedure. The objective of this research is to investigate the utility of environmental AFM for imaging atmospherically relevant aerosols as they respond to changes in relative humidity. Traditional aerosol generation and collection techniques were used in conjunction with environmental AFM to image sodium chloride aerosol as relative humidity increased for a variety of substrates and AFM probes. The results of this research demonstrated the utility of environmental AFM for measuring the hygroscopic properties of aerosols in addition to highlighting potential drawbacks. Further research in this area will lead to an increased understanding of the role of organic and inorganic aerosols in the atmosphere, allowing more accurate climate models to be developed.