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Ozone
Depletion and the Greenhouse Effect
Chlorofluorocarbons
and the Ozone Layer
These
molecules have a number of properties that made them useful. They
were efficient refrigerants, they worked very well as propellants,
and they seemed to be inert (remember Midgeley inhaling them). After
they were released into the troposphere they continued to remain
inert, and wandered upwards, eventually reaching the stratosphere.
In
the mid-1970's several chemists noticed that CFC's underwent photochemical
reactions to produce very reactive chlorine atoms, which, in turn,
could catalyze the decomposition of ozone. This is a simplified
mechanism for that catalytic cycle.
1995
Nobel Prizes in Chemistry
Mario
Molina (MIT)
F.
Sherwood Rowland (U. C. Irvine)
Paul
Crutzen (Max Planck Institute for Chemistry)
Here
is the official announcement from the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
It includes a nice concise description of the work and the ozone
issue and I urge you to read it and compare it to this material.
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