CF3 chemistry: Potential implications for stratospheric ozone

Previous evaluations of the impact of fluorine chemistry on stratospheric ozone have concluded that the role of fluorine compounds in catalytic ozone removal is negligible. However, recent investigations of the degradation pathways for compounds containing CF3 groups indicates that if the reaction of CF3O with O3 is sufficiently fast, there may be an ozone impact. Some recent measurements indicate that the reaction rate constant of CF3O+O3 is sufficiently low that the ozone impact is likely to be small. However, it is not possible a‐priori to rule out significant ozone removal without additional kinetic data on other reactions. We present calculations to illustrate how different key reactions affect the calculated stratospheric concentrations of the CF3X species (CF3, CF3O, CF3O2, CF3OH, CF3OOH, CF3ONO2, CF3O2NO2, CF3OOCl) and their ability to remove stratospheric ozone. We utilize our results to suggest kinetic measurements that could substantially reduce the uncertainties in CF3 chemistry relevant to the determination of ozone depletion potential of CF3‐bearing compounds.