Abstract
Solid layers of interest for the chemistry of polar stratospheric clouds are investigated. Mixtures of covalent N2O5 and water in various molar ratios are deposited from the vapor phase on a cold 12 K substrate. By repeatedly recording Fourier transform infrared spectra of the samples during gradual warmup to 200 K over a period of several hours the hydrolysis process can be followed. At each concentration the process is found to proceed in several distinct steps with sharp temperature thresholds. In samples containing only small amounts of water the covalent N2O5 is first, at around 110 K, converted to an ionic nitronium nitrate, and only in a subsequent step does NO2+NO3− react to form nitric acid.
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