Abstract
ELECTRONICALLY excited oxygen in the 1Δg state exists in the upper atmosphere, and a recent review1 discusses several mechanisms for its formation. Energy considerations alone suggest that the photochemical formation of O2(1Δg) involves absorption of the Sun's radiation by ozone2. Singlet molecular oxygen in both 1Σ+g and 1Δg states is known to react with ozone3–5, so that the reactions of these species are probably of importance in atmospheric chemistry as well as being of considerable interest in studies of reaction kinetics. Circumstantial evidence has accumulated which indicates that O2(1Δg) is produced on the photolysis of ozone6,7 although direct observation of O2(1Δg) has not hitherto been made in the photochemical system. This communication describes the identification of O2(1Δg) by detection of the “infrared atmospheric” band of O2 in emission at 1.27µ in a photochemical system involving ozone.
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IZOD, T., WAYNE, R. Formation of O2 (1Δg) in a Photochemical System involving Ozone. Nature 217, 947–948 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/217947b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/217947b0
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