Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are widespread components in the atmosphere, originating from both human activities and natural sources. These compounds play a crucial role as precursors to tropospheric ozone, influencing both air quality and global climate. Most primary VOCs and their oxidized products (ozone, peroxy-acetyl nitrates, etc.) make up a major fraction of secondary pollutants in urbanized regions. The OH radicals and Cl atoms play a vital role in the oxidation of trace gases (VOCs) due to their fast reaction rates. In addition, these oxidants are responsible for the removal of VOCs from the atmosphere due to their high abundance. Laboratory kinetics and photochemistry measurements are essential for understanding atmospheric chemistry problems. Experimental techniques, such as pulsed laser photolysis – laser-induced fluorescence, relative rate, and computational studies are used for the measurements of kinetics for the atmospheric photo-oxidation reactions. The lifetimes of the VOCs can be determined using the kinetic data obtained from the studies. Most importantly, atmospheric parameters like radiative forcing, global warming potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, ozone depletion potential, and acidification potential can be calculated. These parameters tend to be high mainly for unsaturated, oxygenated and halogenated VOCs. In this seminar, the photo-oxidation reactions of the chlorinated alkanes1, ethers2, and ketones3 with OH radicals and Cl atoms will be presented briefly.

References:
1. Yujing, M. and Mellouki, A. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 2001, 3(13), 26142617.
2. Fan, C., Wang, W., Shi, B., Chen, Y., Wang, K., Zhang, W., Sun, Z. and Ge, M. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 2020, 124(4), 721-730.
3. Ren, Y., Wang, J., Grosselin, B., Daele, V. and Mellouki, A. Journal of Environmental Sciences. 2018, 71, 271-282.