Water Adsorption on Environmental Metal Oxides Determined by the Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) Technique

Authors

Rachel Sechan, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Shane McDemos, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Skye Ludwig, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Alden Walkley, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow
Tobin Thorton, Cal Poly Humboldt
Christopher W. Harmon, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow

Publication Date

2025

College

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Document Type

Poster

Description

Clouds are a critical component of the atmosphere, which predominantly cools the planet by scattering solar radiation back to space. Particulate matter (PM) are small solids suspended in the air that can initiate the seeding process for cloud formation, where environmental metal oxides (EMO) are one of the dominate types of PM. This process is directly related to the relative humidity (RH) above the PM surface and how much water it absorbs. PM collects sparingly small molecular layers of water before undergoing bulk scale water uptake. Details of water uptake at this level are still lacking in the literature, and we desire to quantify water uptake on atmospheric PM to enhance climate models.