An explanation of the preferential formation of less stable isomers in three-body reactions - Cl + NO2 + M; ClO + NO2 + M

A realistic assessment of the potential depletion of stratospheric ozone due to manmade emissions requires a knowledge of the sources and sinks of the potential threat. The reactions ClO + NO2 + M yield products and Cl + NO2 + M yield products are of interest because they represent possible sink mechanism for both odd chlorine and odd nitrogen species. In this paper, the Troe method (1977) is used to calculate the low-pressure limit rate constants of the above three-body reactions. The result for the Cl + NO2 + M reaction is found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental finding of Niki et al. (1978), where both nitryl chloride and chlorine nitrate are products of the cited reaction. An explanation is proposed to account for apparent discrepancy between the measured rate constants for ClO + NO2 + M in the forward and reverse directions. Stratospheric implications are also discussed.