"Measuring Kinetics of Atmospherically Relevant Reactions Using Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy"
Presentation by Matt Sprague '05
Tuesday, February 26
4:30 p.m.
CNS 333
Our atmosphere is full of trace reactive chemical species that significantly impact our way of life. To fully understand the complex atmospheric chemistry, we must make fundamental chemical kinetics measurements in the laboratory. We use cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) to measure spectra and kinetics of various reactions.
While previous kinetic measurements detect secondary products and rely on kinetics models to back calculate rate constants, CRDS allows us to directly detect the primary products of reaction. This has the advantage of lowering the uncertainty on measured rate constants.
After an introduction to CRDS, Matt will describe how we used CRDS to measure the rate constants for reactions involving alkoxy radicals (RO•). Then, he'll explain how he used computational
chemistry to correct the CRDS rate constant measurements for formation of peroxynitrous acid (HOONO).
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20080221110013246