A kinetic and mechanistic study of the reactions of OH radicals and Cl atoms with 3,3,3-trifluoropropanol under atmospheric conditions

Product distribution studies of the OH radical and Cl atom initiated oxidation of CF3CH2CH2OH in air at 1 atm and 298 +/- 5 K have been carried out in laboratory and outdoor atmospheric simulation chambers in the presence and absence of NOx. The results show that CF3CH2CHO is the only primary product and that the aldehyde is fairly rapidly removed from the system. In the absence of NOx the major degradation product of CF3CH2CHO is CF3CHO, and the combined yields of the two aldehydes formed from CF3CH2CH2OH are close to unity (0.95 +/- 0.05). In the presence of NOx small amounts of CF3CH2C(O)O2NO2 were also observed (<15%). At longer reaction times CF3CHO is removed from the system to give mainly CF2O. The laser photolysis-laser induced fluorescence technique was used to determine values of k(OH + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (0.89 +/- 0.03) x 10(-12) and k(OH + CF3CH2CHO) = (2.96 +/- 0.04) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1). A relative rate method has been employed to measure the rate coefficients k(OH + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (1.08 +/- 0.05) x 10(-12), k(OH + C6F13CH2CH2OH) = (0.79 +/- 0.08) x 10(-12), k(Cl + CF3CH2CH2OH) = (22.4 +/- 0.4) x 10(-12), and k(Cl + CF3CH2CHO) = (25.7 +/- 0.4) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1). The results from this investigation are discussed in terms of the possible importance of emissions of fluorinated alcohols as a source of fluorinated carboxylic acids in the environment.