Radical changes in our atmosphere

By Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison2013-09-02T00:00:00

Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison explain how a breakthrough has allowed us to study Criegee biradicals, and what this could mean for atmospheric science

A family of Criegee biradicals, an atmospheric species first postulated in 1949, has recently been detected by an international team of chemists in the US and UK. Criegee biradicals, as their name suggests, can be thought of as having two unpaired electrons on different atoms. These highly reactive – and therefore short-lived – species are formed when volatile unsaturated organic compounds react with ozone. Their discovery may change the way we think about atmospheric chemistry and sheds further light on the mechanism of ozonolysis.

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