Reflected shock tube studies of high-temperature rate constants for OH + NO2 --> HO2 + NO and OH + HO2 --> H2O + O2.

The motivation for the present study comes from the preceding paper where it is suggested that accepted rate constants for OH + NO2 --> NO + HO2 are high by approximately 2. This conclusion was based on a reevaluation of heats of formation for HO2, OH, NO, and NO2 using the Active Thermochemical Table (ATcT) approach. The present experiments were performed in C2H5I/NO2 mixtures, using the reflected shock tube technique and OH-radical electronic absorption detection (at 308 nm) and using a multipass optical system. Time-dependent profile decays were fitted with a 23-step mechanism, but only OH + NO2, OH + HO2, both HO2 and NO2 dissociations, and the atom molecule reactions, O + NO2 and O + C2H4, contributed to the decay profile. Since all of the reactions except the first two are known with good accuracy, the profiles were fitted by varying only OH + NO2 and OH + HO2. The new ATcT approach was used to evaluate equilibrium constants so that back reactions were accurately taken into account. The combined rate constant from the present work and earlier work by Glaenzer and Troe (GT) is k(OH+NO2) = 2.25 x 10(-11) exp(-3831 K/T) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1), which is a factor of 2 lower than the extrapolated direct value from Howard but agrees well with NO + HO2 --> OH + NO2 transformed with the updated equilibrium constants. Also, the rate constant for OH + HO2 suitable for combustion modeling applications over the T range (1200-1700 K) is (5 +/- 3) x 10(-11) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1). Finally, simulating previous experimental results of GT using our updated mechanism, we suggest a constant rate for k(HO2+NO2) = (2.2 +/- 0.7) x 10(-11) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1) over the T range 1350-1760 K.