Photo-Tautomerization of Acetaldehyde to Vinyl Alcohol: A Potential Route to Tropospheric Acids

Abstract

Enols in the Atmosphere? Keto/enol tautomerization (HC−C=O→C=C−OH) plays a central role in the chemistry of carbonyl compounds in a solution in which solvent and catalytic acids or bases can facilitate the proton transfer from C to O and back again. In contrast, analyses of atmospheric chemistry tend to exclude enol structure, on the assumption that tautomerization does not proceed regularly in gas phase. Andrews et al. (p. 1203 , published online 16 August) used isotopic labeling to probe the photoisomerization pathway of gaseous acetaldehyde in the lab and discovered evidence for an enol. Subsequent modeling indicates that photogenerated enols could build up sufficiently in the troposphere to account for previously puzzling observations of organic acids in the atmosphere.