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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-2026-3682</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Mechanistic Insights into Nitric Sulfuric Acid Formation and Its Enhancement of Sulfuric Acid-Ammonia Nucleation under Severe Urban Pollution</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname>
<given-names>Chengyan</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>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Guanhua</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>Guo</surname>
<given-names>Xiaokai</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Li</surname>
<given-names>Yaogeng</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Feng</surname>
<given-names>Xueping</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zuo</surname>
<given-names>Yuan</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>Wang</surname>
<given-names>Rui</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Catalysis, School of Chemical &amp; Environment Science, Shaanxi  University of Technology, Hanzhong, Shaanxi 723001, P. R. China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Yulin Environmental Protection Engineering Co., Ltd., Yulin, Shaanxi 719000, P. R. China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>These authors contributed equally to this work.</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>12</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>31</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Chengyan Zhang 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-2026-3682/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3682/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3682/egusphere-2026-3682.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-3682/egusphere-2026-3682.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Organosulfates (OSs) constitute an important component of secondary organic aerosols (SOA). Although previous studies have investigated the aerosol nucleation of OSs such as glycolic acid sulfate and methyl hydrogen sulfate, exploring the aerosol nucleation behavior of additional OSs remains essential. Herein, the formation mechanism of nitric sulfuric acid (NSA) from the reaction of sulfur trioxide (SO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;) with nitric acid (NA)and its role in sulfuric acid (SA)-ammonia (A) aerosol nucleation was investigated using quantum chemical calculations combined with kinetic simulations. Our results demonstrate that NSA can be formed rapidly and stably in the gas phase with a low barrier of 3.61 kcal&amp;middot;mol&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. The SO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; + HNO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; reaction remains competitive with major atmospheric SO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; loss pathways, including reactions of SO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; + HCOOH, SO&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt; + C&lt;sub&gt;6&lt;/sub&gt;H&lt;sub&gt;5&lt;/sub&gt;COOH and NH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;-catalyzed reactions, and even H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O-catalyzed hydrolysis under dry conditions. Kinetic simulations further demonstrate that NSA significantly accelerates SA-A nucleation, with rates reaching ~ 10&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt; cm&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt; s&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt; under heavily polluted urban conditions (e.g., Beijing), corresponding to a five-order-of-magnitude enhancement over binary clusters and a 10&lt;sup&gt;1&lt;/sup&gt;-10&lt;sup&gt;11&lt;/sup&gt;-fold increase relative to nitric acid. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating NSA into atmospheric aerosol models.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>National Natural Science Foundation of China</funding-source>
<award-id>22203052</award-id>
<award-id>22073059</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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