An overview of the first stable products and their short-lived intermediate precursors in the OH-naphthalene reactant system in the environment of a photochemical smog chamber

A study has been carried out which utilizes an FMO-Mapping model to qualita tively and partially identify the thermodynamic pathways that map out the f irst stable products and their precursors in the evolution of the OH-naphth alene reactant system under the conditions existing in a 10 m(3) smog chamb er. During the course of this study, the modeling suggested that singlet mo lecular oxygen could be a potential competitor of the OH radical for reacti on with the naphthalene. This family of reactants has been produced in a la boratory environment that addresses one particular aspect of real-world, at mospheric chemistry. The simplification of real world PAH chemistry has bee n attempted by using naphthalene as a surrogate that is expected to be wide ly reflective of many aspects of the behavior of the much wider family of P AH.