Download Part 1. Atmospheric chemistry: Dr Sam Saunders

Environmental Chemistry 3310, Semester 2 2007
LECTURES:
A/Professor Dylan Jayatilaka and Dr Sam Saunders
Due to time constraints the lectures may not cover all the material described in the course outline.
Additional, independent reading will be required from various texts recommended through the course.
LABORATORY:
The laboratory work begins in week 7/8 of semester and continues through to the end.
Part 1. Atmospheric chemistry: Dr Sam Saunders
Atmospheric chemistry, general concepts/principles/ideas
When is a substance a pollutant?
Approaches to the prevention of pollution
Regions of the atmosphere
Components of ‘pure’ dry atmosphere
Concentration units for gases
Reservoirs, sources and sinks
Timescales and distribution
Steady state vs. equilibrium
Residence time
Long term trends
Why is Chemistry so important??
Photochemical reactions
Reactions involving free radicals
Measurements – spectroscopy and kinetics
Thermodynamics vs. kinetics
The atmosphere as a non-equilibrium system
Cyclic processes: carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle, sulfur cycle
Energy balances of the Earth
Stratospheric chemistry: the ozone layer
Environmental concentration units for gases
The chemistry of the ozone layer
The ozone hole and other sites of ozone depletion
The chemicals that cause ozone depletion
Systematics of stratospheric chemistry: A review
Ground-level air chemistry and air pollution
Concentration units for atmospheric pollutants
Urban zone: The photochemical smog process
Acid rain
Particulates in air pollution
The health effects of outdoor air pollutants
The detailed chemistry of the troposphere
Indoor air pollution
The greenhouse effect and global warming
The mechanism of the greenhouse effect
The major greenhouse gases
Other substances that affect global warming
Global warming to date
Predictions about future global warming, energy use and CO2 levels
Air Monitoring techniques and applications
Photolysis parameters, NOx NOy.
Atmospheric sampling techniques for stable compounds.
Discrete and continuous with various types of gas chromatography – mass spectrometry
(GC-MS) analysis.
Transient and stable species by differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), Fourier
transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), peroxy radical chemical amplification (PERCA) and
fluorescence assay in gaseous expansion (FAGE), Proton transfer reactor-mass spectrometry (PTRMS)
Development of chemical models.
Data integration and representation.
Validation - against laboratory atmospheric chambers, observation in the real world.n
integrated approach.
Concepts and designs of field campaigns. Case study examples
Part 2: The Aqueous Environment: A/Professor Dylan Jayatilaka