Measurements of thermodynamic and optical properties of selected aqueous organic and organic-inorganic mixtures of atmospheric relevance.

Atmospheric aerosol particles can exhibit liquid solution concentrations supersaturated with respect to the dissolved organic and inorganic species and supercooled with respect to ice. In this study, thermodynamic and optical properties of sub- and supersaturated aqueous solutions of atmospheric interest are presented. The density, refractive index, water activity, ice melting temperatures, and homogeneous ice freezing temperatures of binary aqueous solutions containing L(+)-tartaric acid, tannic acid, and levoglucosan and ternary aqueous solutions containing levoglucosan and one of the salts NH(4)HSO(4), (NH(4))(2)SO(4), and NH(4)NO(3) have been measured in the supersaturated concentration range for the first time. In addition, the density and refractive index of binary aqueous citric acid and raffinose solutions and the glass transition temperatures of binary aqueous L(+)-tartaric acid and levoglucosan solutions have been measured. The data presented here are derived from experiments on single levitated microdroplets and bulk solutions and should find application in thermodynamic and atmospheric aerosol models as well as in food science applications.