Feb-Mar 2012: CFC substitutes Vassileios Papadimitriou, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete (Heraklion, Greece) has conducted an extensive study on the atmospheric degradation of a potential CFC replacement compound. Unsaturated hydrofluorocarbons were recently introduced as a new generation of CFCs substitutes with many commercial applications (refrigerants, fire suppressing, cleaning, and etching agents). In particular, hydrofluoro-2-butenes are considered as better CFC substitutes, since they are expected to have shorter atmospheric lifetimes and lower global warming potentials (GWP). Their atmospheric lifetime depends on their gas phase reactivity with OH radicals, Cl atoms and O3 while Global Warming Potential depends on the infrared absorption cross-section. Within the frame of Eurochamp-2 Transnational Access we assessed the atmospheric fate and impact of these CFC substitutes.

May 2011: Cloud modification and climate change. Isabelle Steinke, PhD student at the AIDA facility, studies aerosol cloud interaction. Although her experiments can contribute to a better understanding of climate change, she doubts that active manipulation of clouds can stop climate change. [Artikel auf deutsch (Die Zeit)]
Isabelle Steinke participated also in the FameLab competition where students have only 3 minutes to explain a complex scientific subject and convince the audience with their creative performance. Learn more about what experiments at the AIDA aerosol and cloud chamber have in common with Germany's Next Topmodel. [Video on youtube]

May 2011: On The EUROCHAMP-2 consortium held the annual meeting back-to-back with the official mid-term review meeting in Berlin. The scientific project officer from the European Commission and an external expert reviewer participated in the meeting during which the consortium presented the progress of work during the last two project years. Special attention was paid to the very successful transnational access activities, which are the backbone of the project. Although the written official review report is not available yet, first feedbacks from the project officer and the reviewer were very positive. During the remaining two project years the consortium will strengthen its activities to make the excellent results of EUROCHAMP-2 better visible to the wider public.

Dec 2010: The first results from a product characterisation of incense burning at UCC, Cork, Ireland, are reported in the Transnational Access section. Hsiao-Chi Chuang (pictured centre), a PhD student from the School of Biosciences at the University of Cardiff (UK), made a 19 day research visit to University College Cork in April 2010. Hsiao performed some detailed measurements to characterise the gas and particle phase products of incense burning. These results have been used investigate the links between the chemical composition and the toxicological effects of incense smoke. In conclusion, this study has shown that incense smoke could pose a significant risk on human health, and further toxicology studies based on these organic compounds should be the subject of extensive investigation.

Dec 2010: The final results from the Eurochamp supported HOxComp intercomparison campaign at the Jülich SAPHIR chamber are now published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The papers by Schlosser et al. and Fuchs et al. show the high quality of today's radical measurements. However, also limitations of the instruments are reported. During this activity, Eurochamp supported the evaluation of the quality of field and laboratory equipment.

Nov 2010: A new type of multiple reflection cell for optical spectroscopy has been developed by PhD student Johannes Ofner and technician Heinz-Ulrich Krüger in the Atmospheric Chemistry Research Lab of the University of Bayreuth. The circular concept of this cell and a slightly skewed entrance beam allow us to enhance the absorption path-length without any need of extensive adjustment. By an appropriate angle of 165° between entrance and exit aperture we achieve 17 beam traversals in the polished spherical cell. The improvement was demonstrated and confirmed by the well-known rotational-vibrational spectrum of carbon dioxide.

[Article on Chemie.de (in German)] [News release of UB (in German) ]

March 2010: Glassy aerosols and ice nucleation. Organic aerosols are ubiquitous in the atmosphere. At low temperatures they are known to become glassy, that is, amorphous, non-crystalline solids. AIDA cloud chamber experiments demonstrate heterogeneous nucleation of ice on glassy citric acid particles. [Murray et al. in Nature Geoscience 2010] [Press release (deutsch)]

Jan 2010: Aerosols play an important role in climate change, both by absorbing or reflecting radiation themselves and by affecting the formation of clouds. The particles can be emitted directly or form from chemical reactions between gaseous pollutants. In this latter case, researchers have found it hard to simulate the formation of real-life aerosol particles in the laboratory. Now a team from Switzerland, The Netherlands, Finland and the UK has made a breakthrough by achieving realistic particle formation rates from sulphuric acid and an organic species inside a smog chamber.
[environmental research web article in english] [Artikel auf deutsch] [research article in PNAS]

July 2009: Eurochamp-2 Transnational Access (TA) was started by an activity at EUPHORE, Valenca, Spain. Jacqueline Hamilton of Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, UK, was the first to submit a proposal being granted within the TA of E-2. The proposal "TOXIC" deals with the reactions of toluene, a widely used solvent. For further details see the list of all successful TA proposals, finished and in progress, which incudes links to current reports and publications.