A smog chamber for studies of the reactions of terpenes and alkanes with ozone and OH

Abstract

The design and performance of a smog chamber for the study of photochemical reactions under simulated environmental conditions is described. The chamber is thermostated for aerosol experiments, and it comprises a gas chromatographic sample enrichment system suitable for monitoring hydrocarbons at the ppbv level. By irradiating NO x /alkane-mixtures rate constants for the reaction of OH radicals with n-alkanes are determined from n-pentane to n-hexadecane to be (k±2σ)/10−12 cm3 s−1=4.29±0.16, 6.2±0.6, 7.52 (reference value), 8.8±0.3, 10.2±0.3, 11.7±0.4, 13.7±0.3, 15.1±0.5, 17.5±0.6, 19.3±0.7, 22.3±1.0, and 25.0±1.3, respectively at 312 K. Rate constants, (k±2σ)/10−17 cm3 s−1, for the reaction of ozone with trans-2-butene (21.2±1.0), cis-3-methylpentene-(2) (47.2±1.7), cyclopentene (62.4±3.5), cyclohexene (7.8±0.5), cycloheptene (28.3±1.5), α-pinene (8.6±1.3), and β-pinene (1.4±0.2) are determined in the dark at 297 K using cis-2-butene (13.0) as reference standard.