Vapor pressures of substituted polycarboxylic acids are much lower than previously reported

The partitioning of compounds between the aerosol and gas phase is a primary focus in the study of the formation and fate of secondary organic aerosol. We present measurements of the vapor pressure of 2-Methylmalonic (isosuccinic) acid, 2-Hydroxymalonic (tartronic) acid, 2-Methylglutaric acid, 3-Hydroxy-3-carboxy-glutaric (citric) acid and 2,3-Dihydroxysuccinic (tartaric) acid which were obtained from the evaporation rate of supersaturated liquid particles levitated in an electrodynamic balance. Our measurements indicate that the pure component liquid vapor pressures at 298.15 K for tartronic, citric and tartaric acids are much lower than the same quantity which was derived from solid state measurements in the only other room temperature measurement of these materials (made by Booth et al., 2010). This strongly suggests that empirical correction terms in vapor pressure estimation models to account for the inexplicably high vapor pressures of these and similar compounds should be revisited, and that due caution should be used when the estimated vapor pressures of these and similar compounds are used as inputs for other studies.