On the relevance of OClO photodissociation to the destruction of stratospheric ozone

Abstract

The gas phase photodissociation of chlorine dioxide has been examined to elucidate its role in the destruction of stratospheric ozone. The existence of the photodissociation channel, OClO + hv → Cl + O 2 , which could in principle catalyze the destruction of ozone, has recently been reported (E. Rühl et al., 1990). We establish here that the quantum yield of this process, in the spectral range 359–368 nm is less than 5×10 −4 and therefore too small to significantly perturb the stratospheric ozone budget.