Experimental and Theoretical Investigations of the Oxidation of Isoprene and Other Select Model Alkenes

尽管持续的研究活动，旨在了解异戊二烯的行为，氧化途径，涉及这一关键的和无处不在的光化学臭氧前体仍然相当差的机械约束。 该建议遵循主要研究者以前在实验室和理论研究中的工作，研究异戊二烯的温度和压力依赖性氧化速率和硝酸盐产率，并选择低和高反应性氮氧化物（NOx）条件下典型的环境对流层烯烃模型系统。 该项目的另一个方面将涉及挖掘现有的环境数据集，从过去的几个项目中获得的现场测量下氮氧化物限制的光化学制度，并使用化学坐标分析方法来评估这些以前的研究结果的一致性和机械精度。 这项研究的结果将为气候重要的烯烃化学和光化学循环机制提供实质性的新见解，调和或至少限制目前在模型如何处理这些系统方面的一些不确定性，并在这样做的过程中导致更好地了解对流层臭氧形成和积累的因素。 这项工作的更广泛的教育影响包括支持两名研究生谁将获得专业的研究培训和PI的指导下的经验。 暑期本科生也将参与这项研究，通过本科生研究经验（REU）活动进行解释性数据分析。

Despite continued research activity aimed at understanding isoprene behavior, oxidative pathways involving this critical and ubiquitous photochemical ozone precursor remain rather poorly constrained mechanistically. This proposal follows on from the Principal Investigator's previous work in laboratory and theoretical investigations of the temperature- and pressure-dependant oxidation rates and nitrate yields of isoprene and select alkene model systems under low- and high- reactive oxidized nitrogen (NOx) conditions typical of the ambient troposphere. Another aspect of this project will involve mining existing ambient data sets from several past programs that acquired field measurements under NOx-limited photochemical regimes and using a chemical coordinate analysis approach to assess consistency and mechanistic accuracy in these previous findings. Results from this study will provide substantial new insights into the mechanisms of climatically important alkene chemistry and photochemical cycling, reconcile or at least constrain some current uncertainties in how models treat these systems, and in doing so lead to a better understanding of factors contributing to the formation and accumulation of tropospheric ozone. The broader educational impacts of this work include support for two graduate students who will gain professional research training and experience under the mentorship of the PI. Summer undergraduate students will also be involved in this research performing interpretive data analyses through a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) activity.