Researchers at the University of Birmingham succeeded in demonstrating how cooking emissions – which account for up to 10 per cent of particulate pollution in the UK – are able to survive in the atmosphere over several days, rather than being broken up and dispersed.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham succeeded in demonstrating how cooking emissions – which account for up to 10 per cent of particulate pollution in the UK – are able to survive in the atmosphere over several days, rather than being broken up and dispersed.
The team collaborated with experts at the University of Bath, the Central Laser Facility and Diamond Light Source to show how these fatty acid molecules react with molecules found naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. During the reaction process, a coating, or crust is formed around the outside of the particle that protects the fatty acid inside from gases such as ozone which would otherwise break up the particles.
This is the first time scientists have been able to recreate the process in a way that enables it to be studied in laboratory conditions by using the powerful X-ray beam at Diamond Light Source to follow the degradation of thin layers of molecules representative of these cooking emissions in minute detail. The results are published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Discussions.
Read more at: University of Birmingham
