The air-water interface is abundant in the environment, thus it is an important proxy for atmospheric processes such as the uptake and transfer of molecules, heterogeneous reactions, photochemistry, and cloud condensation. This thesis aims to elucidate the role of semi-soluble and insoluble organic coatings on atmospheric processes at the air-water interface. Using glancing-angle LIF it was found that monolayer coatings of 1-octanol and of octanoic acid have opposing effects on the ozonation rate of pyrene at the air-water interface. LIF was also coupled with a Profile Analysis Tensiometer (PAT-1) to measure the effect of stearic acid coating compression on the uptake of HCl to a water droplet. Due to preliminary issues with this novel technique, no significant uptake suppression was observed. The oxidation of benzene by OH radical was also explored briefly, as were the photophysics of photosensitizers and the angle dependence of Raman signal from a D2O pendent droplet.

The air-water interface is abundant in the environment, thus it is an important proxy for atmospheric processes such as the uptake and transfer of molecules, heterogeneous reactions, photochemistry, and cloud condensation. This thesis aims to elucidate the role of semi-soluble and insoluble organic coatings on atmospheric processes at the air-water interface. Using glancing-angle LIF it was found that monolayer coatings of 1-octanol and of octanoic acid have opposing effects on the ozonation rate of pyrene at the air-water interface. LIF was also coupled with a Profile Analysis Tensiometer (PAT-1) to measure the effect of stearic acid coating compression on the uptake of HCl to a water droplet. Due to preliminary issues with this novel technique, no significant uptake suppression was observed. The oxidation of benzene by OH radical was also explored briefly, as were the photophysics of photosensitizers and the angle dependence of Raman signal from a D2O pendent droplet.