These compounds do not last long, how they affect the air and man, scientists do not know.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen said that there is a class of reactive chemical compounds in the atmosphere called organic hydrotrioxides. Although such compounds do not last long, they may have an effect that researchers are not yet aware of, according to the Science alert.
The air we breathe consists mainly of nitrogen, large amounts of oxygen and small amounts of oxygen. – carbon dioxide. But there are many other elements in the atmosphere that scientists can only guess at. Researchers estimate that while you were reading these lines, you inhaled several billion of these molecules.
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What has a direct impact on human health, not to mention the health of the entire planet, literally hangs in the air. The fact that scientists have discovered a new ingredient in the Earth's atmosphere means that it should be taken into account.
“These compounds have always existed – we just didn't know about them. But the fact that we now have evidence that compounds form and live for a period of time means that we can study their effects… and react if they prove dangerous, ”said chemist Henrik Grum Kiergaard of Copenhagen University of Denmark.
It is very common in chemistry that adding a new component can completely change the behavior of a substance. Take water, for example. Due to the connection of two hydrogen atoms and one – oxygen, a mysterious substance called life appeared. But if you add another oxygen atom, you will get hydrogen peroxide – a much more reactive compound that can break the chemistry of living things into pieces.
By attaching another oxygen atom, you can get hydrotrioxide. Because hydroxides are highly reactive, the question remains whether they can form stable structures in the atmosphere.
And this question is not just driven by academic interest. Many processes in the work of our atmosphere, from how it affects human health to the scale of the global climate, depend on the interaction of various trace elements.
“Most human activities lead to the release of chemicals into the atmosphere. Therefore, knowledge of the reactions that determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere is important if we want to predict how our actions will affect the atmosphere in the future, “said Christan H. Meller of the University of Copenhagen.
The group's study was the first direct observations of the formation of hydrotrioxide in atmospheric conditions from several substances that are known to be in our air. Scientists have been able to study how a compound is synthesized, how it is stored and how it decomposes.
Thus, isopropene can react, resulting in the formation of 10 million metric tons of hydroxide each year. But this is only one of the sources of their appearance. The team's calculations have shown that virtually any compound can theoretically play a role in the formation of hydrotrioxides in the atmosphere, which will exist for minutes or hours.
During this time, they can participate in many other reactions such as powerful oxidants, some of which can be hidden inside microscopic solid particles drifting in the wind.
Such particles can harm the health of the person who inhales them. In addition, aerosols affect the Earth's atmosphere's ability to reflect sunlight. Knowledge of how internal chemistry causes them to increase or decrease can affect climate models.
Earlier, scientists said that the climate crisis is damaging the mental health of hundreds of millions of people. all over the world. And humanity has not yet appreciated the full extent of this threat.
