Kinetics of Trace Gas Uptake by Liquid Surfaces

Abstract

The kinetic and thermochemical processes controlling the heterogeneous interaction of gaseous species with liquid surfaces are not nearly as well understood as homogeneous processes governing chemical and physical transformations in either the gaseous or liquid states. The relatively recent realization that heterogeneous processes involving aerosols and cloud droplets play an important role in many atmospheric chemistry and physics issues has spurred the development of new experimental techniques to investigate, and improve phenomenological descriptions to describe, gas–liquid interactions. This review presents the current phenomenological framework available to address the uptake of gaseous species by liquid surfaces. It also describes two novel experimental techniques developed in our laboratories to explore trace gas–liquid surface interactions and presents key experimental results obtained using these techniques.