Photochemistry and kinetics of gas phase reactions involving HO and Cl radicals

Abstract

The kinetics of the reaction of the HO radical with HNO/sub 3/ and H/sub 2/O/sub 2/, the kinetics of Cl atom reactions with ClNO and ClNO/sub 2/, and the photochemistry of ClNO/sub 2/ and ClONO/sub 2/ were examined. The ultraviolet absorption cross sections of HNO/sub 3/ and ClNO/sub 2/ were also determined as part of the kinetics work. The rate constant for the reaction of HO with HNO/sub 3/ at room temperature was measured to be (8.2 +- 1.8) x 10/sup -14/ cm/sup 3/ molecule/sup -1/ s/sup -1/, where the uncertainty reported here and in all cases reflects twice the experimental standard deviation plus an estimate of systematic errors. The rate constant for the reaction HO + H/sub 2/O/sub 2/ was measured as (1.57 +- 0.23) x 10/sup -12/ cm/sup 3/ molecule/sup -1/ s/sup -1/. This agrees well with the two latest determinations and serves as a calibration of the experimental apparatus used. The Cl + ClNO reaction rate constant was determined to be (1.65 +- 0.32) x 10/sup -11/ cm/sup 3/ molecule/sup -1/ s/sup -1/. The rate constant for the reaction of Cl + ClNO/sub 2/ was found to be (5.05 +- 0.75) x 10/sup -12/ cm/sup 3/ molecule/sup -1/ s/sup -1/. This is the first direct measurement of this rate constant. The photodissociation of ClNO/sub 2/ was studied in great detail. The absorption cross sections were measured in the ultraviolet and found to be substantially lower than the literature values in the Cl/sub 2/ absorption region (300 to 360 nm). Two product channels were investigated; products representative of the two channels were Cl and O atoms. Absolute calibration for the product detection systems was provided by Cl/sub 2/ and NO/sub 2/ photolysis respectively. The quantum uields measured for photolysis at 350 nm, calcualted using the absorption spectrum measured in this work, are: 0.93 +- 0.1 for Cl and less than or equal to 0.025 for O. An upper limit of 0.1 was measured for the O atom channel in ClOHO/sub 2/ photolysis.