Strange molecules wipe acid rain

Researchers have discovered a strange molecule needed to break down pollutants in the atmosphere, especially compounds that make acid rain. The strange chemical properties of this molecule are the characteristics that attract the attention of scientists.

Marsha Lester, Professor Edmund J. Kahn of the University of Pennsylvania, along with Joseph Francisco, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, discovered the molecule and the cause of headache for scientists for over 40 years. .

The article describes the molecule published this week on the special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Much like human bodies metabolize food, the Earth's atmosphere has the ability to 'burn' or oxidize pollutants, especially nitrous oxide emitted from sources such as factories or vehicles. What is not oxidized in the atmosphere falls back to the ground in the form of acid rain.

Francisco said: 'How the atmosphere removes nitric acid is still unclear. This discovery provides an important understanding of the process. Without this discovery, we cannot understand the condition that nitric acid is removed from the atmosphere '.

Francisco said the discovery would allow scientists to model the reaction of pollutants in the atmosphere as well as predict potential results.

Scientists at Purdue and Pennsylvania University have discovered essential molecules capable of breaking down pollutants in the atmosphere.This is an abnormal molecule with two hydrogen bonds and has never been discovered before.The image above shows the structure of the molecule, with the blue sphere being the nitrogen atom, the red being the hydrogen atom, the white being the oxygen atom, and the yellow part showing the position of the double hydrogen bond.(Photo: Joseph Francisco / Purdue News Service)

Francisco said: 'This is very important for emerging industrial countries like China, India and Brazil, where vehicles and factories are not strictly regulated. We also gain knowledge of acid rain, future concerns'.

Lester said atmospheric chemists have been analyzing molecules for 40 years, and she and Francisco have pursued it for the past few years.

She said: 'We have anticipated this strange atmospheric component for many years, seeing it firsthand and understanding its properties is very interesting'.

What makes it strange is its two hydrogen bonds, similar to that found in water.

Although water is the most common substance on the planet, it has strange properties. For example, the solid form of water - ice - is lighter than liquid and floats. Water also boils at a much higher temperature than expected from its chemical structure.

The cause of these strange properties is the weak hydrogen bonds that bind water molecules together.

The new atmospheric molecule has two hydrogen bonds that allow it to form a six-sided ring structure. Hydrogen bonds are often weaker than conventional atoms, known as covalent bonds. In fact, covalent bonds are 20 times stronger than hydrogen bonds. But in this case, two hydrogen bonds are strong enough to affect the chemistry of the atmosphere.

Lester said the new molecule has its own unique properties.

She explained: 'The participatory reaction of this molecule is faster at lower temperatures, but the opposite of most chemical reactions. The rate of reaction also varies according to atmospheric pressure, while most reactions do not depend on external pressure. It also represents a strange quantum attribute. '

Lester asserted that the anomalous attribute is a barrier for scientists in building a response model.

'This is not the way we explain chemistry to high school students,' she said.

Francisco revealed that the discovery will be applied in many areas other than atmospheric chemistry.

He added: 'This is a situation where we study a completely environmental issue, however, because this discovery is very basic, it may have a wider application to the birth system. learning depends on hydrogen links'.

The breakthrough was made by laser technology at the University of Pennsylvania lab and supercomputers at Purdue. Calculations are performed on the SGI Altix supercomputer, operated by the Information Technology Department at Purdue.

Francisco said: 'The bottom line is knowing where to look and how to identify the existence of new chemicals. With computer technology at Purdue, we can identify chemical processes with a certain degree of uncertainty. We cannot perform this research without the supercomputer available power '.