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PRIMARY PHOTOCHEMICAL PROCESSES OF ACROLEIN
Citation:
Gardner, E., P. Sperry, AND J. Calvert. PRIMARY PHOTOCHEMICAL PROCESSES OF ACROLEIN. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/3-86/005.
Description:
Pollutants are removed from the atmosphere in a number of ways: they can react with OH and O3, they can be dry and wet deposited, photodissociate through solar radiation, or they can be biodegraded. The report presents the photodissociation processes of acrolein. Quantum yields of acrolein loss are given. The dominant reactions in the lower troposphere are the formation of C2H4 and CO. Also produced are CH2-CHCHO, H, CH2CH, and HCO radicals but at lower quantum yields. Since the OH attack on acrolein is quite large 1.9 x 10 to the -11th power cu cm/molec s) ambient levels of OH (about 10 to the 6th power molecules/cu cm) will remove acrolein very rapidly usually about 15 hours. Thus, the major loss mechanism of acrolein in the troposphere is through OH attack and the photodissociation process is of negligible importance.