Light is a major driver of the chemistry of the atmosphere and usually involves the photolytic fragmentation of molecules into radicals before their reaction. New results show that formaldehyde, excited by low-energy light, can react with oxygen, opening up alternative atmospheric oxidation pathways.
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Seakins, P.W. Photophysical oxidation of atmospheric carbonyls. Nat. Chem. 15, 1321–1323 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01338-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01338-3
