Autoxidation in the Environment

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With this award, the Environmental Chemical Sciences Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professors Paul Wennberg and Brian Stoltz of the California Institute of Technology to investigate the role of autooxidation in environmental processes. Autoxidation of organic compounds is known to be important in combustion, food and wine spoilage, degradation of olefinic liquids, and very broadly in biological systems. The role of autoxidation in the environmental degradation of organic compounds is being explored. A collaborative team of scientists is studying the kinetics and mechanism for autooxidation of a series of model compounds. The goal is to create a model of autoxidation for use in evaluating the rate by which autoxidation converts reduced carbon compounds in the environment to highly oxygenated substances. More broadly, the kinetics of autoxidation described through this study address many gas and condensed phase applications that span science from improved food preservation to reduced aerosol production in open-air combustion. The role of autoxidation in the environmental degradation of organic compounds remains largely unexplored. Via a collaboration of a team of scientists, including computational, organic, and analytical chemists, the rate of this oxidative chemistry for a diverse set of organic substrates is investigated. Model compounds that characterize many of the reduced organic substrates found in the environment are synthesized to explore the physical chemistry of autoxidation. Using density functional calculations and laboratory observations, a model of autoxidation for use in evaluating the rate by which autoxidation converts reduced carbon compounds in the environment to highly oxygenated constituents is being created. Initial applications include study of the formation and aging of organic aerosols, and the atmospheric oxidation of alkenes by the nitrate radical during the night. Broader impacts of these studies could be far-reaching should it be found that this oxidative chemistry impacts the burden of ozone and aerosol quite generally.