Atmospheric Photochemistry at Aqueous and “Wet” Surfaces

Abstract:

There are often pronounced environmental effects on photochemical processes, due to the influence that solvation may exert on reaction energetics and the electronic structure of chromophores.Tthere has been a lot of research on aqueous phase photochemistry of atmospheric relevance; often the chemistry is modified significantly from its gas phase counterpart. The aqueous surface represents a distinctive environment at which photochemistry may occur: chromophoric species present at the interface are only partly solvated and the presence of realistic impurities may further influence the available photochemical pathways. I will discuss some recent work which investigates how the nature of the aqueous (or wetted organic) surface alters the photochemistry of both organic and inorganic species present there.