Titre: Atmospheric Organic and Inorganic Chemistry: Predicting the Fate of (in)Organic Molecules in Clouds, in Aerosols and in the Gas Phase
Hôte: Prof. Patrick Hayes
Nadine Borduas-Dedekind
Assistant professor
Department of Chemistry, University of British-Columbia
RÉSUMÉ
The atmosphere is a fascinating place to observe chemical reactions! There are gas phase reactions governed by radicals and which lead to ozone and smog formation. There are surface reactions on particles, on buildings, and even on your skin! There are aqueous phase reactions in clouds, in rain drops. All these chemical reactions are affected by meteorological conditions where they can be warmed by the sun, stirred by the wind and solvated by water. In this talk, I’ll present an overview of the field of atmospheric chemistry and my group’s most recent contributions to our chemical understanding of the evolution of organic and inorganic molecules travelling through the atmosphere. We’ll talk about atmospheric oxidants, with a focus on molecular oxygen and its first excited state, singlet oxygen produced by outdoor and indoor light. I’ll introduce the topic of cloud formation and the role of organic molecules as ice nuclei. And finally, I’ll present ongoing work on the biogeochemical cycling of selenium in the atmosphere.
