We have prepared and assayed different types of chemical compounds into the lab as established in the proposal and developed new technicals to manipulate and levitate single aerosol particles.
Two techniques were used to manipulate individual particles: The first technic (Bessel beam (BB)) was used to trap optically weakly absorbing particles. The second technnic (Lineal electrodynamic quadrupole) was developed and implemented during workpack 2. As result of this work, we have provided a precise data set of refractive indices for nonabsorbing aerosol. We demonstrated that it is possible to provide more accurate Radiative Forcing Efficiency (RFE) values using refined optical properties from BB-CRDS measurements.
As for the experienced researcher training objectives, they were as follows:
1 Provide a supportive environment for knowledge-exchange in the multidisciplinary and intersectorial field of aerosol single levitated particles.
2 Establish a tailored mentoring and training plan for career development in both academia and industry.
Work carried out during the fellowship towards the achievement of each listed objective: a training plan for career development was establish as the beginning of the fellowship. Dr. Antonio Valenzuela Gutierrez has improved his research skills by the completion of research activities.
1.2 Explanation of the work carried per WP
WP1: For the retrieval of accurate measurements of the real part of refractive index (RI) we examined RH and wavelength dependencies for scattering aerosol of a range of compositions. These data provided sufficient resolution to benchmark mixing rules. From the composition dependence, the pure component RIs were used to refine predictive tools for RIs. To achieve these goals single particle CRD measurements of light extinction by complex compositions as a function of RH were made with high accuracy.
WP2: This Workpack was focused to achive three objectives:
-Initial Benchmarking of the New Instrument Development for Absorbing Aerosol Measurements.
-Establishing the Accuracy of Imaginary Refractive Index Measurements.
-Examining the Optical Properties of Mixed-Component Aerosol and the Influence of Chemical Aging of Organic Aerosol on Light Absorption.
The list of comunication and dissemination activities are as follows:
1. Publications:
a. Valenzuela, A., Reid, J. P., Bzdek, B. R., &Orr-Ewing, A. J. (2018). Accuracy required in measurements of refractive index and hygroscopic response to reduce uncertainties in estimates of aerosol radiative forcing efficiency. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028365(si apre in una nuova finestra).
b. Second publication almost prepared for submission to journal.
c. Third still is in preparation.
2. Conferences:
a. Talk by Dr. Antonio Valenzuela Gutierrez at the 36th American Association for
Aerosol Research (AAAR) in Raleigh, North Caroline, USA, 2017.
b. Poster by Dr. Antonio Valenzuela Gutierrez at the 10th International Aerosol
Conference (IAC) in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 2018.
3. Outreach/public engagement activities:
a. Bristol Bright Night, September 2017 (the H2020 Researcher’s Night).
b. Open Doors activities organized for secondary students in the University of
Bristol.
c. Seminars were regularly presented to the Bristol aerosol research centre (one each two months) as well as to the Bristol University community in general.
d. Regular meeting (one each two weeks) were held with the research team to
communicate results and the progress of the experiments.
e. Frequently companies visited our laboratory and experimental demonstrations (dissemination activities) were undertaken with the objective of exporting the technology and knowledge to the industry.
f. I supervised a postdoctoral visitor from Shanghai University of
Electric Power (Dr. Fenghong Chu) and a PhD student (Rose E. Willoughby) from
University of Bristol.
g. A webpage was prepared to show results of the REDRAF project
(
https://redrafproject.wordpress.com/(si apre in una nuova finestra)).
