HO2 + O3 Reaction: Ab Initio Study and Implications in Atmospheric Chemistry

We report a theoretical investigation on the reaction between ozone and the hydroperoxyl radical, which is part of the ozone depletion cycle. This reaction represents a great challenge to the state of the art ab initio methods, while its mechanism remains unclear to both experimentalists and theoreticians. In this work we calculated the relative energies of the stationary points along the reaction coordinate of the oxygen- and hydrogen-abstraction mechanisms using different levels of theory and extrapolating some of the results to the complete one-electron basis set limit. Oxygen abstraction is shown to be preceded by formation of hydrogen-bonded complexes, while hydrogen abstraction shows a lower energy barrier than oxygen abstraction. Both mechanisms lead to formation of HO3 + O2 in a very troublesome region of the potential-energy surface that is not correctly described by single-reference methods. The implications of the results on reaction dynamics are discussed.