Issue 31, 2023

Vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of sulfur dioxide and its implications for oxygen production in the early Earth's atmosphere

Abstract

The emergence of molecular oxygen (O2) in the Earth's primitive atmosphere is an issue of major interest. Although the biological processes leading to its accumulation in the Earth's atmosphere are well understood, its abiotic source is still not fully established. Here, we report a new direct dissociation channel yielding S(1D) + O2(a1Δg/X3Σg−) products from vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photodissociation of SO2 in the wavelength range between 120 and 160 nm. Experimental results show O2 production to be an important channel from SO2 VUV photodissociation, with a branching ratio of 30 ± 5% at the H Lyman-α wavelength (121.6 nm). The relatively large amounts of SO2 emitted from volcanic eruptions in the Earth's late Archaean eon imply that VUV photodissociation of SO2 could have provided a crucial additional source term in the O2 budget in the Earth's primitive atmosphere. The results could also have implications for abiotic oxygen formation on other planets with atmospheres rich in volcanically outgassed SO2.

Graphical abstract: Vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of sulfur dioxide and its implications for oxygen production in the early Earth's atmosphere

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
30 jun 2023
Accepted
25 jul 2023
First published
01 aug 2023
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 8255-8261

Vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation of sulfur dioxide and its implications for oxygen production in the early Earth's atmosphere

Y. Chang, Y. Fu, Z. Chen, Z. Luo, Y. Zhao, Z. Li, W. Zhang, G. Wu, B. Fu, D. H. Zhang, M. N. R. Ashfold, X. Yang and K. Yuan, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 8255 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC03328G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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