Surface active agents stabilize nanodroplets and enhance haze formation

Although many organic molecules found commonly in the atmosphere are known to be surface-active in aqueous solutions, their effects on the mechanisms underlying haze formation remain unclear. In this paper, based on a simple thermodynamic analysis, we report that the adsorption of amphiphilic organics alone not only lowers the surface tension,but also unexpectedly stabilizes nanodroplets of specific size under water vapor supersaturation. Then we determine how various factors, including relative humidity, water activity effect due to dissolution of inorganic components as well as surface tension effect due to surface adsorption of organic components, cooperatively induce the stability of nanodroplets.The nanodroplet stability behaviors not captured in the current theory would change the formation mechanism of haze droplets, from the hygroscopic growth pathway to a nonclassical two-step nucleation pathway.