3 ms·
(Physicist/Engineer of sorts here. Zero atmosphere knowledge) That half life depends on concentration is not surprising to me; ethanol's half life in the blood
by amateurICEguy 4y ago
(Physicist/Engineer of sorts here. Zero atmosphere knowledge)
That half life depends on concentration is not surprising to me; ethanol's half life in the blood also depends on it's concentration and the reason is rather straight forward: the liver has limited amounts of enzymes needed to process booze.
What is surprising to me, though, is that there is a mechanism that has such a massive effect at the extremely low concentrations of methane that are present in the atmosphere. Sure, OH is rare, but I'd guess is generated in large amounts in the upper atmosphere (UV + H2O -> OH- + O+ + momentum to keep them away from each other).
Does anyone here have any hard math on this?
- twic 4y agoFWIW, and this is a rather minor and pedantic point, these are hydroxyl radicals, not hydroxide ions, so it's: H2O + γ -> OH• + H• Rather than: H2O + γ -> OH- + H+ Oh, and whichever way, H2O splits into OH and H, not OH and O, but i assume that was a typo!
- robocat 4y ago> OH• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyl_radical https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyl_radical “Notation: The unpaired electron of the hydroxyl radical is officially represented by a middle dot, •, beside the O.” Note that article uses a superscripted dot <sup>•</sup>OH, and the dot is usually prefixed in the article (presumably so as to put the dot next to the O that doesn’t have a full shell?). However the article sometimes suffixes the dot, to put it beside the R organic radical. Weird.