Probing Unusual Kinetic Isotope Effects in Ozone Formation through Crossed Beam and Bulk Photochemistry Experiments

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In this award, co-funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry and the Atmospheric Chemistry Program of the Atmospheric Sciences Division (Geosciences Directorate), Professor Kristie A. Boering of the University of California - Berkeley, together with her graduate student researchers, will investigate the chemistry of oxygen in order to determine the root-cause for the unusual isotopic fractionation observed in atmospheric ozone. The Boering group will carry out bulk photochemical investigations in their laboratory in Berkeley and will travel to Taiwan to carry out a number of crossed-beam investigations of the atomic + molecular oxygen exchange reaction in the laboratories of the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences of Academica Sinica. In addition, these experimental studies will be supplemented with theoretical investigations by Prof. Dmitri Babikov of Marquette University and Prof. Hua Guo of the University of New Mexico, as well as Prof György Lendvay of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Isotopic patterns in atmospheric gases can be used to glean clues into the complicated workings of the earth's atmosphere. The ozone isotope anomaly is still mysterious, and is not completely explicable with standard chemical models. The ozone isotope anomaly is transferred to other important trace gases, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Developing a firm understanding of the trace isotope fractionation in these gases will allow scientists to develop robust models of the atmosphere -- which are important in climate change research. Besides the broad scientific impact of this work, Prof. Boering's students are experiencing the kind of globe-spanning research effort that is becoming more of the norm in modern science -- thus training them to be the kind of globally-engaged scientists that our society will need in the future.