Tran Nguyen
University of California-Davis, CA·Chemistry·Early-career
Tiny water droplets in clouds, fog and airborne particles act as small chemical reactors that change what is in the air we breathe. One recently recognized reactive species there is the sulfate radical anion, a highly reactive sulfur-containing molecule that can attack organic compounds.
- Fields
Chemistry
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
sulfate radical anion
atmospheric chemistry
aqueous chemistry
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Measure light-driven production of sulfate radicals in aqueous particles and bulk water, and how it depends on pH, particle liquid water content, ionic strength and interfacial surface area.
- Quantify how fast sulfate radicals react with environmentally important organic compounds, and identify the products, such as organosulfates, to work out reaction mechanisms.
- Combine atmospheric chamber experiments with computational modeling to judge how sulfate radical chemistry in droplets may change atmospheric composition.
More about the research
These reactions can produce organosulfates, surface-active compounds that may affect air composition and how particles interact with clouds, which in turn affects climate. This project studies how sulfate radicals form in atmospheric water and how they react.
Why it matters
Reactions in cloud, fog and aerosol water help set the makeup of the atmosphere and how particles affect clouds. Better data on sulfate radical chemistry could improve atmospheric models of aerosol composition. It could also help scientists understand human-caused climate impacts that run through sulfur and organic aerosol chemistry.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jesse Kroll
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Chemistry
Measure how ozone, formaldehyde and secondary organic aerosol form, and in what amounts, when isoprene, monoterpenes and aromatics are oxidized in chambers across the full range of atmospheric organic peroxy radical (RO2) conditions.
Hamish Gordon
Carnegie Mellon University, PA·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Develop a new parameterization of atmospheric new particle formation that accounts for temperature and ions, using CERN CLOUD chamber data and field measurements, and evaluate it in climate models.
Rodney Weber
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify how the switch to lower-sulfur fuel oil changes wintertime PM2.5 sulfate, hydroxymethanesulfonate and related sulfur species in Fairbanks, Alaska, using real-time monitoring instruments.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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