Does atmospheric processing of saturated hydrocarbon surfaces by NO ₃ lead to volatilization?

The heterogeneous oxidation of a saturated hydrocarbon monolayer by NO ₃ was studied. A flow tube reactor coupled to chemical ionization mass spectrometry was used to determine the reactive uptake coefficient of NO₃ on these surfaces, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to investigate surface oxidation and to determine if exposure to NO ₃ leads to volatilization of the organic substrate. The uptake coefficient of NO₃ by an alkane monolayer is about (8.8 ± 2.5) × 10^-4, which may lead to competitive oxidation compared with OH, due to the higher atmospheric abundance of NO₃ under certain conditions. The XPS results are consistent with the formation of 1) C-O groups, 2) ketones or aldehydes, and 3) carboxylic groups. The XPS results also suggest that NO₃ does not rapidly volatilize the organic surface: even under extremely polluted conditions, maximum 10% of the organic layer is volatilized.