High yields of formic acid and acetic acid during multi-generational oxidation of toluene

Abstract. Formic acid and acetic acid are the most abundant gas-phase organic acids in the atmosphere, yet their concentrations are substantially underestimated by both global and regional atmospheric models across diverse environments. In this study, we report unexpectedly high yields of formic acid and acetic acid during the multi-generational photooxidation of toluene, a canonical anthropogenic volatile organic compound. Their yields exhibit a strong dependence on hydroxyl radical (⚫OH) exposure ([⚫OH] × residence time), increasing from 25 % and 24 % under low exposure (< 0.2 equivalent days) to 74 % and 40 % under elevated exposure (1–3 equivalent days) for formic and acetic acid, respectively. The formation of these organic acids is not significantly affected by NOx concentrations. A modified box model based on MCM v3.3.1 underestimates the peak concentrations of both acids by approximately a factor of five, indicating substantial gaps in current mechanistic understanding. Although both secondary aerosol formation and organic acid production increase with aging to a certain degree of oxidation, their distinct temporal evolutions suggest that particle photodegradation is not the dominant pathway. The contrasting ⚫OH exposure dependence between organic acids and primary carbonyl compounds further implies that these acids are predominantly multi-generational oxidation products. These findings demonstrate that multi-generational oxidation of aromatic compounds is an important and previously underappreciated source of atmospheric organic acids. The omission of organic acid formation from aromatic oxidation in current chemical mechanisms likely contributes to their widespread underestimation in models, highlighting the need for detailed laboratory studies and updated chemical mechanisms.