Ss. Brown et al., Reconsideration of the rate constant for the reaction of hydroxyl radicalswith nitric acid, J PHYS CH A, 103(16), 1999, pp. 3031-3037
We report rate coefficients for the reaction of OH with HNO3, k(1), between
10 and 500 Torr of He, SF6, N-2, and O-2 and at 10 different temperatures
between 200 and 375 K. We generated OH via pulsed photolysis of HNO3 and mo
nitored the [OH] temporal profile via pulsed laser induced fluorescence. Be
low 300 K the value of k(1) increases rapidly with decreasing temperature a
nd depends on pressure. The pressure dependence of k(1) at low temperature
is significantly larger than that obtained by extrapolation of the currentl
y available data. The pressure and temperature dependence is most likely du
e to a competition between direct abstraction and reactive complex formatio
n. A rate constant expression derived from such a mechanism gives a global
fit for k(1) that is applicable to atmospheric conditions. The new rate con
stant alters the calculated NO2 to HNO3 ratio in the lower stratosphere.