The humidity dependence of ozone deposition onto a variety of building surfaces

Measurements of the dry deposition velocity of O3 to material samples of calcareous stone, concrete and wood at varying humidity of the air, were performed in a deposition chamber. Equilibrium surface deposition velocities were found for various humidity values by fitting a model to the time-dependent deposition data. A deposition velocity-humidity model was derived giving three separate rate constants for the surface deposition velocities, i.e. on the dry surface, on the first mono-layer of adsorbed water and on additional surface water. The variation in the dry air equilibrium surface deposition velocities among the samples correlated with variations in effective areas, with larger effective areas giving higher measured deposition velocities. A minimum for the equilibrium surface deposition velocity was generally measured at an intermediate humidity close to the humidity found to correspond to one mono-layer of water molecules on the surfaces. At low air humidity the equilibrium surface deposition velocity of O3 was found to decrease as more adsorbed water prevented direct contact of the O3 molecules with the surface. This was partly compensated by an increase as more adsorbed water became available for reaction with O3. At high air humidity the equilibrium surface deposition velocity was found to increase as the mass of water on the surface increased. The deposition velocity on bulk de-ionised water at RH=90% was an order of magnitude lower than on the sample surfaces.