Stopped‐flow study of the gas‐phase reaction of ozone with organic sulfides: Dimethyl sulfide

The autoinhibiting reaction of ozone with dimethyl sulfide (DMS), has been studied at 296°K and 1.1 kPa (8 torr) as a function of the concentrations of both reactants. The major products of the reaction are H 2 CO, H 2 O, CO, and SO 2 . The specific rate of primary attack of O 3 on DMS is immeasurably slow. It is suggested that the rapid overall rate observed for this reaction is due to a chain reaction initiated by the very slow primary reaction. It is concluded that reaction (1) cannot be important under atmospheric conditions and that the major loss process for DMS in the atmosphere is probably reaction with photochemically generated free radicals.