Atmospheric Chemistry: Laboratory Studies of Kinetics of Important Reactions.

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. This thesis describes the experiments to measure the rate constants for some reactions of the atmospherically important nitrate radical (NO_3) using the discharge-flow technique. The nitrate radical was monitored by optical absorption at lambda = 662 nm. The reactions of NO_3 with some stable organic and inorganic substrates are reported. The temperature dependences of some of the rate constants have also been determined (298 < T < 523 K). In most cases, computer simulation was used to extract the rate constant for the primary process because the time-dependent behaviour of (NO_3) was affected by secondary reactions of NO_3 with products of the primary interaction. The Arrhenius parameter in parentheses (E _{rm a}/kJ mol^ {-1}, A/cm^3 molecule ^{-1}s^ {-1} respectively) for the following reactions have been determined: ethane (37, 6.7 times 10^{-12}), ethylene (25.8, 6.3 times 10^ {-12}), CH_3OH (21.3, 1.2 times 10^ {-12}), CHCiota_3 (23.4, 8.6 times 10 ^{-13}) and HCl (27.7, 4 times 10^{-12}). The activation energies for the reactions studied between NO_3 and some alkynes are represented well by the value 25 +/- 3 kJ mol^{-1} and the corresponding pre-exponential factors (expressed as ln(10 ^{13}A/cm^3 molecule^{-1}s ^{-1}) are as follows: C_2H_2 (1.6 +/- 1.4), C_3H _4 (5.0 +/- 1.4), 1-C_4H_6 (5.8 +/- 1.0), 1-C_5 H_8 (5.7 +/- 0.6) and 1-C_6H _{10} (4.5 +/- 0.4). Some reactions were studied at room temperature _3(298 +/- 2 K) only and the rate constants found (in units of cm ^3 molecule^{ -1}s^{-1}) are: buta-1,3-diene (1.8 times 10 ^{-13}), isobutene (2.8 times 10^{-13 }), HBr (1.3 times 10 ^{-15}) and hex-2-yne (3.0 times 10^{-14 }). Non-Arrhenius behaviour was found in the reactions of NO_3 with n-butane, isobutane and propene. The empirical variation of these rate constants with temperature is well represented by the three parameter expressions:. k(T) = 1.2 times 10 ^{-46}T^{11.4 }exp(-1131/T) for n-butane; k(T) = 1.6 times 10^ {-49}T^{12.3} exp(-1828/T) for isobutane; and for propene, k(T) = 2.4 times 10 ^{-19}T^ {2.25}exp(-700/T). The curvature of the Arrhenius plots is discussed in terms of (a) a temperature-dependent pre-exponential factor and (b) the possibility that two competing channels, possessing differing activation energies, exist for each reaction. The atmospheric implications of these reactions are discussed with reference to the nigh-time production of nitric acid and the importance of the these reactions as loss processes for NO_3.