• Scientists reveal how wildfire smoke particles generate additional pollutants under sunlight, worsening air quality and health risks 

Wildfire smoke causes more air pollution than current atmospheric models can predict. A new study in Science Advances reveals the hidden chemistry that explains why. 

The study, by researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reveals that, under sunlight, wildfire smoke particles act like tiny chemical factories, producing harmful oxidants such as peroxides, a group of highly reactive pollutants contributing to smog and haze.  

The new study helps explain why field measurements consistently detect elevated peroxide levels during wildfire events, even in cities, where the normal ‘gas-phase’ chemical routes that create them should be blocked by other pollutants such as nitric oxide, a common gas produced by burning fuel. 

Professor Chak Chan, study co-author and dean of KAUST’s Physical Science and Engineering Division, said the study shows that smoke particles can bypass traditional suppression by nitrogen oxides in polluted environments by generating oxidants internally under sunlight.  

“This particle-driven pathway is surprisingly efficient — orders of magnitude faster than what classical pathways can supply,” he said. 

Read more at KAUST News.