A story about some

important science
Donald R. Blake
Department of Chemistry
University of CA, Irvine

June 15, 2016

Life lesson
Cell phone etiquette
Showing up at Armstrong without proper ID
Push outside your comfort zone

Genealogy
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Laws about combining gases
(1778-1850)
Willard Frank Libby
Nobel Prize 1960: 14C Dating
(1908-1980)

F. Sherwood Rowland
Nobel Prize 1995:
Stratospheric ozone
1927-2012

Why were CFCs so attractive as

aerosol propellants?

CFC-11

CFC-12

How are things removed from the atmosphere?

Cl
F
Lifetime:

Cl

Cl
Cl
50 years

Cl
102 years

The Experiment
Published in Nature, 1974
Incident Light = Li

Light Out = Li LCFC12

CFC-12

Radiation absorbed by CFC-12, = 160-220nm UV

hv > 220nm

Cl
F

Cl

Cl
F

Cl

hv < 220nm

Cl
F

Cl

Cl
C
F

Cl

F + Cl

Stratospheric Chemistry
Chapman 1930
O2 + hv O + O
O2 + O + M O3 + M *
O3 + hv O2 + O
O3 + O O2 + O2
O3 + hv O2+ O
hv < 320nm

Cicerone and Stolarski (catalytic cycle)

O3 + Cl ClO + O2
ClO + O Cl + O2
Rowland and Molina
CCl3F + hv Cl + CCl2F
CCl2F2 + hv Cl + CClF2

What are the effects of reduced

stratospheric ozone?

Blake rack

Ridley rack

Total Ozone (Dobson Units)

110

220

330

440

550

Why is there an ozone hole in in the southern polar region

when almost all of the CFCs are emitted into the air in the
northern hemisphere?

Cl + CH4 HCl + CH3

ClO + NO2 ClONO2
Both HCl and ClONO2 are
reservoirs for free chlorine

Major chlorine gases in the stratosphere

Legislation
~200 countries have signed the Montreal Protocol

 Imagine 200 countries agreeing on anything!

Guess ozone depletion by 2065

with no regulation???

 Two thirds of ALL stratospheric

ozone would be gone by 2065 if
there had been no regulations on
CFC emissions.

Nobel Prize Ceremony 1995

21 years after first ozone publication

Post Ceremony Dinner With 1320 Guests

2006

Acknowledgements
February 10, 2012