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Kinetics investigations of atmospheric chemical reactions. Doctoral thesis

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6028051

Two gas-phase kinetics investigations were performed using a low-pressure, fast-flow system with mass spectrometric detection. The first investigation was a study of the rates of the reactions of diatomic sulfur, S/sub 2/, with O, O/sub 2/, O/sub 3/, N/sub 2/O, NO and NO/sub 2/ at 409K and low pressure (0.89-3.0 Torr). The reaction with atomic oxygen was found to be fast. Under the experimental conditions, S/sub 2/ did not react with any of the other species, but upper limits to the reaction rate constants are reported. The second investigation was a study of the synergistic coupling of atmospheric bromine and chlorine chemistry. It is concluded that the ClO+BrO reaction could account for a large fraction of the spring-time ozone hole reported recently, provided that at least 20 ppt of total inorganic bromine is present, and it may provide a source of chlorine dioxide of sufficient magnitude to explain the recent measurements of this species in the Antarctic stratosphere.

Research Organization:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (USA)
OSTI ID:
6028051
Report Number(s):
PB-87-213351/XAB; NCAR/CT-107
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English