Water Complexes of Important Air Pollutants: Geometries, Complexation Energies, Concentrations, Infrared Spectra, and Intrinsic Reactivity

Water complexes involving methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, acetone, ammonia, acetylene, ethylene, chloroethene, trichloroethene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, hydroxyl radical, and hydroperoxyl radical have been studied. Enthalpies, entropies, and Gibbs free energies of association have been estimated, as well as the concentrations of the complexes under lower-troposphere conditions. The influence of the relative air humidity on the complexation processes has been analyzed. The association processes yielding water complexes of methanol, ethanol, formic acid, ammonia, acetone, hydroxyl radical, and hydroperoxyl radical were found to be more exothermic than that of the water dimer. General trends for the reactivity of the studied water complexes, compared to those of the corresponding free species, are proposed based on global reactivity indexes. The previously reported increased reactivity of the (center dot)OOH self-reaction, when there is water present, has been explained. The IR spectra of the complexes have been analyzed and compared with those of the free species.