Articles | Volume 24, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1841-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
pH regulates the formation of organosulfates and inorganic sulfate from organic peroxide reaction with dissolved SO2 in aquatic media
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- Final revised paper (published on 08 Feb 2024)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 12 Sep 2023)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2044', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Oct 2023
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Narcisse Tsona Tchinda, 24 Oct 2023
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2023-2044', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Oct 2023
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Narcisse Tsona Tchinda, 24 Oct 2023
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Narcisse Tsona Tchinda on behalf of the Authors (30 Oct 2023)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (20 Nov 2023) by Jason Surratt
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (21 Nov 2023)
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (06 Dec 2023)
ED: Publish as is (16 Dec 2023) by Jason Surratt
AR by Narcisse Tsona Tchinda on behalf of the Authors (19 Dec 2023)
In this work the authors carried out quantum calculations to explore the aqueous-phase reactions of organic peroxides (MHP, PAA and BZP) with dissolved SO2 or S(IV) species under various pH conditions. The simulated results clearly demonstrated the effects of pH on the major reaction pathways between various organic peroxides with S(IV) species leading to form inorganic sulfate and organosulfate. The potential reaction mechanisms were discussed with details and in general agreed with the existing experimental results. The paper is well written and provide greater mechanistic understanding of the organic peroxides chemistry in aspect of inorganic and organic sulfur formation. I only have a few minor comments
General comments:
For the quantum chemical calculations, what are the concentrations of the reactants used in the calculations? Would the reaction pathways and kinetics potentially affect by the reactant concentrations?
For the reaction pathways, would there be any other possible reaction pathways between the organic peroxides and S(IV) in addition to the ones discussed and considered in the calculations?
In the atmospheric implications, it is very nice the authors to show and discuss the effective rate constants for different reaction systems under different values of pH and temperature and their corresponding lifetimes. the authors have pointed out such reactions may be important for sulfate formation under oxidant-limiting conditions. Can the authors further elaborate this point? Also, could the authors comment the yield of inorganic sulfate and organosulfates in different reaction systems and environmental conditions.
Minor comments.
Line 100, “The diffusion coefficient for a reactant is related to its radius in any medium of viscosity 𝜂 by the Stokes-Einstein approach (Einstein, 1905).” It is not clear what is the viscosity of the aqueous solutions. How the diffusion would affect the reaction pathways if the solutions or aqueous aerosols were hlghly viscous?
Line 115, “The formation of SO2•H2O•MHP is relatively endergonic at 298.15 K and standard concentration of 1 M.” Can the authors elaborate why the concentration of 1M was chosen for the calculations? Would the concentration of the reactants affect the reaction pathways and kinetics?
Line 155, “The high proportion of sulfate relative to methyl sulfate observed by Lind et al. can further be explained by the demonstrated fast hydrolysis of methyl sulfate at acidic pH (Hu et al., 2011) and its effective oxidation by OH radicals (Kwong et al., 2018) to form inorganic sulfate.” Could the authors comment how significance of these two processes in the formation of inorganic sulfate and organosulfates relative to the reactions between organic peroxides and S(IV) species?
Line 183, “In general, the reaction of PAA is much more favorable to the formation of inorganic sulfate than the reaction of MHP at all pH ranges, while the formation of organosulfate is slightly prevented. This is in line with the experimental observation that the reaction of PAA with dissolved SO2 almost exclusively forms inorganic sulfate (Lind et al., 1987).” What would be the ratios of the inorganic sulfate to organosulfate formed upon the reaction of PAA and dissolved SO2 at pH 1.81 – 6.97 and pH > 6.97? Also, what would be ratios for other reaction systems?