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Active Oxygen in Chemistry pp 249–279Cite as

Reactions of Oxygen Species in the Atmosphere

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Abstract

Despite its sometimes apparent tranquility, the Earth’s atmosphere is a complex chemical reactor, and chemicals released into it are oxidized by a series of chemical processes which are somewhat analogous to a low-temperature combustion system. Indeed, and fortunately, through these reactions the atmosphere acts as a “garbage-disposal” system to remove chemicals emitted into it. These chemical transformation processes involve a series of reactive oxygen-containing species, primarily ozone (O3), the hydroxyl radical (OH), and the nitrate radical (NO3) as the initiators together with an array of intermediate radicals including hydro-peroxyl (HO2), organic peroxy (RO2), and alkoxy (RO) radicals. Chemical compounds released into the atmosphere from anthropogenic and biogenic sources are subject to the physical removal processes of wet and dry deposition (Bidleman, 1988; Atkinson, 1988) and photolysis and chemical reaction (Atkinson, 1988, 1990, 1994), leading to such manifestations of air pollution as photochemical air pollution (Seinfeld, 1989; NRC., 1991), acidic deposition (Schwartz, 1989; Rodhe, 1989), forest decline and crop damage (Blank et al., 1988; Schulze, 1989; Frank, 1991), visibility reduction (Seinfeld, 1989; Larson et al., 1989), stratospheric ozone depletion (WMO, 1992), global atmospheric warming (IPCC., 1990), and the formation of toxic air pollutants (Atkinson and Arey, 1994).

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Authors
  1. Roger Atkinson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California at Los Angeles, USA

    Christopher S. Foote  & Joan Selverstone Valentine  & 

  2. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

    Arthur Greenberg

  3. University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

    Joel F. Liebman

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Atkinson, R. (1995). Reactions of Oxygen Species in the Atmosphere. In: Foote, C.S., Valentine, J.S., Greenberg, A., Liebman, J.F. (eds) Active Oxygen in Chemistry. Structure Energetics and Reactivity in Chemistry Series (SEARCH Series), vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0874-7_7

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