Investigation of background radical sources in a teflon-film irradiation chamber

Conference · Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1988 · Preprints of Papers Presented at National Meeting, Division of Water, Air and Waste Chemistry, American Chemical Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:7267570

Glasson, W A; Dunker, A M ^[1]

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1. General Motors Research Labs., Warren, MI (USA)

In attempts to model hydrocarbon/NOx irradiations carried out in smog chambers, workers have found it necessary to postulate background free radical sources. Without such radical sources, it has not been possible to obtain agreement between the predictions of chemical mechanisms and the chamber data. The background radical sources appear to be specific to chambers and are not used when applying chemical mechanisms to simulate the atmosphere. Until recently, there were no experimental measurements of the radical sources, and as a result assumptions on the nature and magnitude of the sources varied. Differences in these assumptions are responsible for some of the differences in the predictions of chemical mechanisms in atmospheric simulations. Experimental determinations of the background radical sources in different chambers are, therefore, imperative for the effective use of chamber experiments in developing and evaluating chemical mechanisms for smog formation. In this work, they have conducted a detailed study of the background radical sources in a small Teflon-film chamber. The purpose was to determine the usefulness of such chambers for quantitative studies of smog formation. Values for the background radical sources were derived from the experimental data by simulations with a detailed chemical mechanism, and the uncertainties in these values were estimated as well. The effects of various parameters, such as light intensity and NO and NO{sub 2} concentrations, on the radical sources were studied to provide the necessary information for taking these sources into account in modeling future chamber experiments.

• OSTI ID: 7267570
• Report Number(s): CONF-8909232-; CODEN: ACWCA
• Journal Information: Preprints of Papers Presented at National Meeting, Division of Water, Air and Waste Chemistry, American Chemical Society; (USA), Vol. 28:2; Conference: 8. Japan - United States Governmental conference on solid waste management, Honolulu, HI (USA), 6-7 Sep 1989; ISSN 0099-7293
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
NITRIC OXIDE
PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS
NITROGEN DIOXIDE
RADICALS
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERES
EXPOSURE CHAMBERS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
SMOG
VISIBLE RADIATION
ATMOSPHERES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN OXIDES
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIATIONS
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)