RUI: The Chemistry of Hydrogen Peroxide in Cloudwater

多年来，社会一直将大气视为稀释我们工厂和汽车排放的废气的无限蓄水池。我们现在知道，硫磺和氮氧化物的排放导致了酸雨现象，这对动植物以及一些建筑材料都是有害的。大气化学家致力于研究这些化合物被氧化成硫酸和硝酸的过程。例如，如果我们要预测排放减少所导致的酸度下降的地理模式，这种化学信息是必要的。该项目的重点是过氧化氢，它已被确定为溶解二氧化硫的关键氧化剂。大气中的过氧化氢被认为是由过氧化氢和超氧自由基产生的。在实验室中，通过观察相对高浓度的自由基在精心提纯的溶液中的消失，研究了过氧化氢的产生。在这个项目中，钴-60辐射将被用来在云水中产生具有环境大气特征的自由基。然后将分析样品中过氧化氢的浓度以及在存在和不存在常见大气污染物的情况下过氧化氢的形成速度。这些实验将有助于建立适当的反应速率，以用于包含水相大气过程的模型。

For many years, society has treated the atmosphere as an infinite reservoir for diluting emissions from our factories and automobiles. we now know that sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions have resulted in the phenomenon of acid rain, which is detrimental to plant and animal life as well as some building materials. Atmospheric chemists are engaged in studies of the processes by which these compounds are oxidized to sulfuric and nitric acids. such chemical information is necessary if we are ever to predict, for example, the geographical pattern of acidity reduction which would result from diminished emissions. This project focuses on hydrogen peroxide, which has been identified as a key oxidant for dissolved sulfur dioxide. Atmospheric hydrogen peroxide is believed to originate from hydroperoxyl and superoxide radicals. The production of hydrogen peroxide has been studied in the laboratory by observing the disappearance of the free radicals at relatively high concentration in carefully purified solutions. In this project, cobalt-60 radiation will be used to generate the radicals in cloudwater at levels characteristic of the ambient atmosphere. Samples will then be analyzed for the concentration of hydrogen peroxide and the rate of its formation in the presence and absence of common atmospheric contaminants. The experiments will help establish the appropriate reaction rates to use in models incorporating aqueous atmospheric processes.