Ozone Formation and Destruction

FORMATION:

  • Ozone is O3, Oxygen is O2

  • Need to add another O to oxygen to get ozone- need split the two Oxygen atoms

  • UV rays from the sun splits the two oxygen atoms

  • Free oxygen atom goes to O2 and makes O3 (ozone, hooray!)

DESTRUCTION:

  • Can happen naturally with UV rays breaking them apart again

  • Chloroflorocarbons (chlorine, flourine, carbon) or CFC’s break ozone

    • Chlorine likes to bond with other things, so it bonds with an oxygen atom and breaks it off. Steals an O from O3 to make oxygen again

    • It likes to kill A LOT of ozone molecules- gets rid of the old single oxygen molecule and then goes and steals another

  • CFC’s have a really long residence time

    • Came from aeresol sprays and refridgerants

SOLUTIONS:

  • Everybody was like “okay lets stop using CFC’s” because the ozone layer is really important (protects from UV radiation, skin cancer). This is KIND OF working because we’re not contributing more but it has a long residence time so it will be a while

  • We could do the same thing with greenhouse gases, but we’re not :(

OZONE HOLE:

  • Biggest hole is in Antarctica- wind currents from developed countries have gone into the atmosphere over there