Impacts of the heterogeneous ammonia uptake on air quality in the North China Plain
- 1Institute of Earth Environment (Xi'an, China)
Abstract
Previous studies have revealed that the heterogeneous uptake of ammonia (NH ₃ ) on secondary organic aerosols (SOA) may influence the NH ₃ budget, nitrate aerosol chemistry, and the regional PM 2.5 burden, also constituting an important source of nitrogen-containing organic compounds (NOCs). However, regional modeling remains hindered by large uncertainties in the uptake coefficient ( γ ) and limited field-based constraints. In this study, we incorporate a first-order NOCs-forming NH ₃ –SOA reactive-uptake pathway into WRF-Chem and adopt a literature-based sensitivity range of γ=10-5-10-3 to evaluate its impacts on air quality and particulate organic nitrogen over the North China Plain during November 2017. Laboratory evidence of declining reaction efficiency and comparison with the measured NOCs burden support considering γ=10-5 as a conservative upper limit for sustained operation of this pathway under the conditions examined. With γ=10-5, the uptake reaction decreases NH ₃ concentrations by 0.62 % and inorganic aerosol and PM 2.5 concentrations by less than 0.06 %, while producing 1.2 µg m ⁻³ of NOCs in the NCP. These results indicate that the pathway has only a minor influence on NH ₃ and PM 2.5 under the present conditions, but may provide an additional source of particulate organic nitrogen.
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BibTeX
@article{lu2026impacts,
title = {{Impacts of the heterogeneous ammonia uptake on air quality in the North China Plain}},
author = {Yuxuan Lu and Ruonan Wang and Ningning Zhang and Qiyuan Wang and Yuepeng Pan and Qian Jiang and Xuexi Tie},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/acp-26-15257-2026},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-15257-2026},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Impacts of the heterogeneous ammonia uptake on air quality in the North China Plain
AU - Yuxuan Lu
AU - Ruonan Wang
AU - Ningning Zhang
AU - Qiyuan Wang
AU - Yuepeng Pan
AU - Qian Jiang
AU - Xuexi Tie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
DO - 10.5194/acp-26-15257-2026
UR - https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-15257-2026
AB - Previous studies have revealed that the heterogeneous uptake of ammonia (NH ₃ ) on secondary organic aerosols (SOA) may influence the NH ₃ budget, nitrate aerosol chemistry, and the regional PM 2.5 burden, also constituting an important source of nitrogen-containing organic compounds (NOCs). However, regional modeling remains hindered by large uncertainties in the uptake coefficient ( γ ) and limited field-based constraints. In this study, we incorporate a first-order NOCs-forming NH ₃ –SOA reactive-uptake pathway into WRF-Chem and adopt a literature-based sensitivity range of γ=10-5-10-3 to evaluate its impacts on air quality and particulate organic nitrogen over the North China Plain during November 2017. Laboratory evidence of declining reaction efficiency and comparison with the measured NOCs burden support considering γ=10-5 as a conservative upper limit for sustained operation of this pathway under the conditions examined. With γ=10-5, the uptake reaction decreases NH ₃ concentrations by 0.62 % and inorganic aerosol and PM 2.5 concentrations by less than 0.06 %, while producing 1.2 µg m ⁻³ of NOCs in the NCP. These results indicate that the pathway has only a minor influence on NH ₃ and PM 2.5 under the present conditions, but may provide an additional source of particulate organic nitrogen.
SN - 1680-7324
ER -