TROPOSPHERIC DEGRADATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL

PEDRO LUGO; FABRICIO AGUIRRE; GABRIEL IMWINKELRIED,; MARIA BELEN BLANCO

Workshop; Humboldt Kolleg 2022; 2022

Daily human activity, mainly in big cities, generates a large amount of substances that modify the natural composition of the air. Fossil fuels burning from transport and energy generation produces thousands of tons of pollutants that are emitted into the atmosphere. Vehicles are the main source of emissions, followed in importance by anthropogenic and biogenic sources.Once they reach the troposphere, the pollutants can be photolyzed and/or degraded by different tropospheric oxidants. Knowledge of the kinetics, mechanisms and products formed in these oxidation processes of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by reaction with OH, O3, NO3 species or by solar photolysis is essential to predict the evolution of primary pollutants emitted into the atmosphere, as well as the formation in situ of secondary pollutants, which regulate the state of atmospheric pollution and air quality.[1]In this sense, we study in our laboratory the degradation of VOCs of industrial origin, focused on the kinetics and the atmospheric mechanisms of these reactions in remote and polluted areas. Particularly, our work includes the photooxidation of halogenated compounds, which mechanistic studies have shown the formation of perfluorinated acids which are emergent pollutants with high persistency (POPs) in different environmental matrixes.On the other hand, the lab facility “smog chamber for environmental studies” located at the University Laboratory of Chemistry and Air Pollution (LUQCA) at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, UNC will be presented and its versatility to study different processes of air pollution. The results obtained will be of high impact on the generation of photochemical smog, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), greenhouse gases and/or the depletion of stratospheric ozone.