Inspired by atmospheric measurements, which have established that atmospheric aerosols have a large organic content, my collaborators and I proposed that they likely consist of an aqueous core with an organic surface, with profound consequences to their chemical properties. In this presentation, the special morphological and chemical properties of organic films on aqueous solutions will be discussed. Langmuir trough experiments have contributed to making the case that the surface of water in aqueous drops and at the sea surface provides a special and unique reaction environment with qualitatively different thermodynamic and kinetic properties from bulk aqueous solutions. Examples from our lab of chemistry initiated at the water surface leading to increase in the chemical complexity of the organic molecules involved. Solar radiation is the largest source of energy on both the contemporary and early Earth. Multiphase photochemical mechanisms will be discussed by which a-keto acids react in aqueous environments to form organic radicals, which then recombine to form larger, more complex lipids. The generation of such oligomeric organic molecules from smaller precursors is of interest to planetary atmospheric chemistry. The relevance of this chemistry to reactions in aqueous microdroplets, aerosols, at the sea surface and to chemistry in the contemporary atmosphere as well as chemistry that may have occurred prebiotically, in the absence of enzymes on ancient Earth.

<b>Award Address </b>(Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics sponsored by the ACS and the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry). Water-air interfaces – natural reaction environments

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.

Award Address (Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics sponsored by the ACS and the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry). Water-air interfaces – natural reaction environments