Nitrate radical quantum yield from peroxyacetyl nitrate photolysis

Bradley A Flowers; Mark E Angerhofer; William R Simpson; Tomoki Nakayama; Yutaka Matsumi

doi:10.1021/jp045529n

Nitrate radical quantum yield from peroxyacetyl nitrate photolysis

J Phys Chem A. 2005 Mar 24;109(11):2552-8. doi: 10.1021/jp045529n.

Authors

Bradley A Flowers¹, Mark E Angerhofer, William R Simpson, Tomoki Nakayama, Yutaka Matsumi

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry and Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6160, USA.

PMID: 16833558
DOI: 10.1021/jp045529n

Abstract

Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN, CH3C(O)OONO2) is a ubiquitous pollutant that is primarily destroyed by either thermal or photochemical mechanisms. We have investigated the photochemical destruction of PAN using a combination of laser pulsed photolysis and cavity ring-down spectroscopic detection of the NO3 photoproduct. We find that the nitrate radical quantum yield from the 289 nm photolysis of PAN is Phi(NO3)PAN = 0.31 +/- 0.08 (+/-2 sigma). The quantum yield is determined relative to that of dinitrogen pentoxide, which is assumed to be unity, under identical experimental conditions. The instrument design and experimental procedure are discussed as well as auxiliary experiments performed to further characterize the performance of the optical cavity and photolysis system.