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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2401</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Heterogeneous Nitrosation Reactions of Amines Driven by Dinitrogen Tetroxide: A Missing Source of Particulate Nitrosamines</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chi</surname>
<given-names>Tai-Xing</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9361-5728</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ning</surname>
<given-names>An</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6530-4465</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ni</surname>
<given-names>Shuang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0896-9356</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Xiao</surname>
<given-names>Wei-Kang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Yang</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Deng</surname>
<given-names>Xiu-Cong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Liu</surname>
<given-names>Ling</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3719-4083</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bai</surname>
<given-names>Feng-Yang</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0644-9971</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhao</surname>
<given-names>Zhen</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Xiu-Hui</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9570-7882</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>nstitute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Environment Characteristics and Effects for Near-space, Key Laboratory of Cluster Science, Ministry of Education of China, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Chang Ping, Beijing 102249, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>These authors contributed equally to this work.</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>17</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Tai-Xing Chi et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2401/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2401/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2401/egusphere-2026-2401.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2401/egusphere-2026-2401.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Nitrosamines&amp;nbsp;are highly carcinogenic and reactive nitrogen-containing pollutants that are&amp;nbsp;widely detected in atmospheric particulate matter; however, their formation mechanisms remain poorly understood. Herein, we elucidate previously unrecognized&amp;nbsp;yet kinetically viable&amp;nbsp;heterogeneous mechanisms for nitrosamine formation via amine-mediated reactions with dinitrogen tetroxide (N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;)&amp;nbsp;at the air&amp;ndash;water interface,&amp;nbsp;using&amp;nbsp;Born&amp;ndash;Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations. The reactions proceed via two distinct pathways: (&lt;em&gt;i&lt;/em&gt;) barrierless N-nitrosation of methylamine (MA) or dimethylamine (DMA)&amp;nbsp;by N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, directly yielding nitrosamine cations&amp;nbsp;and nitrate ions&amp;nbsp;(NO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;sup&gt;&amp;minus;&lt;/sup&gt;); and (&lt;em&gt;ii&lt;/em&gt;) MA/DMA-mediated hydrolysis of N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;nbsp;produces interfacial HONO&amp;nbsp;rapidly within ~2&amp;ndash;16&amp;nbsp;ps, which can further react with amines to form nitrosamines, albeit with a relatively high reaction barrier of 7.65 kcal mol&lt;sup&gt;&amp;minus;1&lt;/sup&gt;.&amp;nbsp;Overall, the amine-mediated interfacial N-nitrosation reactions proceed rapidly and may represent an important source of particulate nitrosamines. Meanwhile, amine-mediated interfacial hydrolysis of N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;nbsp;is a potential source of HONO, proceeding through the combined effects of interfacial water bridging and strong basicity of amines. Our findings reveal a previously overlooked role of heterogeneous interfacial chemistry in elevated particulate nitrosamine formation and coupled HONO production, with important implications for urban reactive nitrogen cycling and its representation in chemical transport models.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="17"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars</funding-source>
<award-id>No. 22225607</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>No. 22476134</award-id>
<award-id>No. 22306011</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>China Postdoctoral Science Foundation</funding-source>
<award-id>No. 2024M754098</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs4">
<funding-source>Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province</funding-source>
<award-id>No. 2026JH6/101000020</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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