Isobel Thistlethwaite

Biography

I am a first year PhD student in the Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories (WACL) at the University of York. I previously completed an integrated masters in Chemistry at the University of York, with my Masters' year also being in WACL. My Masters project investigated iodine speciation in seawater by microalgae, specifically quantifying iodide production by the Arctic diatom A.longicornis using ion chromatography.

Qualifications

Masters in Chemistry.

Research interests

Atmospheric chemistry and air-sea exchange.

Project title

Investigating novel reactive organic gases emitted from the oceans.

Supervisors

Funding

NERC Panorama.

Project outline

Unaccounted and underestimated marine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been attributed as a factor in the poor understanding of missing OH radical reactivity in the atmosphere. Oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs) can additionally contribute to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. VOCs are emitted abiotically from the sea surface microlayer (SML) which is enriched with organic compounds via three main pathways.

These pathways are direct photooxidation, photosensitised oxidation and the heterogeneous reaction with ozone. A photochemical cell connected up to an ozone generator will be used to produce VOCs due to photolysis and heterogeneous oxidation, as well the combination of the two. The VOCs will be identified and quantified using proton transfer reaction time of flight mass spec (PTR-TOF MS).