Humidity-Dependent Viscosity of Secondary Organic Aerosol from Ozonolysis of β‑Caryophyllene: Measurements, Predictions, and Implications

To predict important secondary organic aerosol (SOA) properties, information on viscosity or diffusion rates within SOA is needed. Ozonolysis of β-caryophyllene is an important SOA source; however, very few viscosity or diffusion rate measurements have been performed for this SOA type and none as a function of relative humidity (RH). In this study, we measured viscosity as a function of RH for SOA generated from the ozonolysis of β-caryophyllene using the poke-flow technique. At an RH of 0 and 48%, the viscosity was between 6.9 × 105 and 2.4 × 107 Pa s, and between 1.3 × 103 and 5.6 × 104 Pa s, respectively. Based on these viscosities and the fractional Stokes–Einstein equation, characteristic mixing timescales of organics within 200 nm β-caryophyllene SOA particles range from ∼0.2 h at 0% RH to