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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

kinetics, atmospherically important reactions, peroxy radical

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Abstract

Organic peroxy radicals react to form tropospheric ozone, which harms the health of humans and vegetation and is considered the most significant pollutant in rural areas.1 Many of the individual reactions in the overall mechanism for ozone formation involve radicals. Radicals are highly reactive and therefore it is challenging to measure their fundamental properties directly. Particularly, it is difficult to determine an accurate reaction rate constant for reactions involving radicals. This rate constant is largely dependent on the atmospheric conditions. Dr. Jaron Hansen is currently studying the effect of water vapor on the kinetic rate constant for the reaction of 2-hydroxyethylperoxy radical with itself. This research explored two methods for improving the determination of the reaction rate constant of radical-radical reactions from experimental data. Method 1 was tested on the self-reaction of HO2, the most abundant peroxy radical in the atmosphere. The kinetics of HO2 have been widely studied and therefore it was a good test for the analysis method. Method 2 was applied to the reaction of 2-hydroxyethylperoxy radical with itself.

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