Natural denitrification in drying process of dew

This report is the first observation of natural chemical denitrification in the drying process of dow. Nitrogen compounds released in the atmosphere a re considered to be subjected to oxidation to form nitric acid by the chemi cal process so far. The results here show that nitrous acid is reduced to N -2 by drying of dew. Dew was collected at Osaka Prefecture University in Sa kai City, Japan from 1996 to 1997. Concentrations of ammonium and nitrite i ons in dew were very high related to those in rain, and pHs of dew were rel atively high, pH ca. 6.5. We found that when dew was dried, most nitrite an d ammonium ions in eluded in dew were decomposed. It is well-known that con centrated ammonium nitrite aqueous solution is unstable and decomposes to N -2 and H2O. During the drying process of dew, nitrite and ammonium would be concentrated and react to form N-2, and as a result, nitrite and ammonia i n the dried dew are lost, that is, natural denitrification occurs in the dr ying process of dew. We report here results of the natural denitrification.