Kinetics of the OH + NO₂ reaction: rate coefficients (217–333 K, 16–1200 mbar) and fall-off parameters for N₂ and O₂ bath gases

Abstract

Abstract. The radical terminating, termolecular reaction between OH and NO2 exerts great influence on the NOy∕NOx ratio and O3 formation in the atmosphere. Evaluation panels (IUPAC and NASA) recommend rate coefficients for this reaction that disagree by as much as a factor of 1.6 at low temperature and pressure. In this work, the title reaction was studied by pulsed laser photolysis and laser-induced fluorescence over the pressure range 16–1200 mbar and temperature range 217–333 K in N2 bath gas, with experiments at 295 K (67–333 mbar) for O2. In situ measurement of NO2 using two optical absorption set-ups enabled generation of highly precise, accurate rate coefficients in the fall-off pressure range, appropriate for atmospheric conditions. We found, in agreement with previous work, that O2 bath gas has a lower collision efficiency than N2 with a relative collision efficiency to N2 of 0.74. Using the Troe-type formulation for termolecular reactions we present a new set of parameters with k0(N2) = 2.6×10-30 cm6 molecule−2 s−1, k0(O2) = 2.0×10-30 cm6 molecule−2 s−1, m=3.6, k∞=6.3×10-11 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, and Fc=0.39 and compare our results to previous studies in N2 and O2 bath gases.