Criegee Biradicals - The Molecules That May Reverse Global Warming

You will be hearing a lot about Criegee intermdediaries and Criegee Biradicals in the next few years.  A team of atmospheric chemists have found that the molecule in our atmosphere can naturally break down pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, and turn their constituent chemicals in to earth-cooling cloud formations.


Researchers at Sandia Labs, the University of Manchester, and Bristol University have detected and characterized the behaviour of these molecules.   Criegee biradicals are carbonyl oxides that were first hypothesized in the 1950s by Rudolf Criegee a German chemist, but had not been able to be directly detected until now.

In this case formaldehyde oxide (CH₂OO) was detected on Sandia Lab apparatus and the reaction time was measured.  The apparatus used the intense, tunable light from a third-generation synchrotron facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source to discern the formation and removal of different isomeric species, which are molecules that contain the same toms but arranged in different combinations.  The results of the research were published in Science.

Furthermore, the scientists believe that the Criegee intermediaries are actually  formed by plants, demonstrating that the ecosystem itself can help repair global warming.

In the video below,researchers Craig Taatjes and David Osborn discuss data found from the detection and measurement of Criegee intermediate reactions. The apparatus seen in the video was used to make the measurements, which researchers believe will substantially impact existing atmospheric chemistry.