Environmental chemistry is the study of how chemicals behave and interact within the environment and how human activities influence these processes. At A level we typically focus on the chemistry of the atmosphere, including air pollution, ozone depletion, and climate change.Â
The Greenhouse Effect
Global warming and the greenhouse effect are topics that everyone feels they know well enough (because you’ve done them to death at GCSE), but you do need to be able to explain what is going on in terms of the chemistry …
What is photochemical smog and how do we prevent it from forming?
Photochemical smog is a brownish haze caused by the action of the sun’s visible and ultraviolet radiation on the primary pollutants from the combustion of fossil fuels – unburned hydrocarbons, carbon particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.
Heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic converters
Catalysts are able to lower the activation enthalpy for a reaction, increasing the number of successful collisions between reactants and hence the reaction rate.Â
The catalyst itself is either not used up or is regenerated at the end of the reaction, and does not change the amount of product in a reaction.
CFCs and the ozone layer
The chemistry that underlies the depletion of ozone in the stratosphere by chlorofluorocarbon molecules is really interesting – an application of radical reactions in the atmosphere, initiated by high frequency UV-C and UV-B radiation.