Carbonyl stratospheric chemistry

Photochemically-generated radicals are encountered as reactive intermediates in many important systems, being a major driving force in the photochemistry of ozone in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) and the polluted lower atmosphere (troposphere). The photochemistry of organic carbonyl compounds is dominated by radical chemistry (Chapter 9). Photoinitiators are used to form radicals used as intermediates in the chain growth and cross-linking of polymers involved in the production of electronic circuitry and in dental treatment. 

Carbonyl sulfide COS is emitted from terrestrial soil, ocean and biomass burning into the atmosphere, but since their loss rate in the troposphere is very small, most of them reach to the stratosphere. The photolysis of COS in the stratosphere is a very crucial reaction as it provides sulfur into the atmosphere forming sulfuric aerosol layer (the Junge Layer) in the stratosphere. Incidentally, although COS is often described as OCS in the textbooks and literature of atmospheric chemistry, the notation of COS is used in this book according to the recommendation of lUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). 

Briihl, C. LeUeveld, J. Crutzen, P.J. Tost, H., 2012 The Role of Carbonyl Sulphide as a Source of Stratospheric Sulphate Aerosol and Its Impact on Chmate , in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 12 1239—1253 (2012)... 

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