Development of methods for the atmospheric chemistry
For the investigation of atmospheric processes, sensitive and selective measurement methods are needed to detect postulated trace elements in the atmosphere and in the laboratory. Often, known measuring methods have a too low sensitivity to quantify the substances to be detected in the ultra trace region. Since these trace elements are often of fundamental importance for the understanding of atmospheric processes, the development of new, sensitive methods is an important task in atmospheric chemistry. An important example is the detection of OH radicals - the so-called "detergent of the atmosphere", which occurs only in the atmosphere in the ppq range (1 ppq corresponds to one particle to 1015 = 1,000,000,000,000,000 air particles). Despite the low concentrations, the OH radical is responsible for the majority of all pollutant degradation processes. The following is a list of measuring devices that have been developed in physical chemistry in Wuppertal over the past few years:
- LOPAP (Long Path Absorption Photometer) for detecting nitrous acid (HONO), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen monoxide (NO), ozone (O3).
- Further development of commercial measuring instruments
- Mass spectrometric methods (MS)
