Due to some newly discovered and not-yet-explained property of microdroplets (like a very high surface area:mass ratio) they readily react with air to produce peroxide, H2O2. The theory I’m describing, based on experiments testing peroxide formation at varying ozone concentration, is that the water molecules are reacting with the small amounts of ozone commonly present in air.
In chemistry, some molecular configurations are very stable and some are very unstable. Unstable things tend to react with other things in such a way that total stability increases; when it happens, energy is released (exothermic). Going from a stable configuration to an unstable one requires either a counterparty that was super unstable and became less so while reacting (still exothermic), or an input of energy (endothermic - basically never happens at equilibrium unless you’re directly applying high heat). However, just because a reaction is more stable at the end than the beginning doesn’t mean it will just occur, because in reality there are several stages the participants need to go through over an imperceptibly small time scale, some of which may actually require an input of energy to reach (activation energy).
Ozone is highly unstable but in air at STP, unless it meets another ozone, none of the normal molecules in air will react with it because they’re all super stable already (even N2, idk if the reaction can technically be exothermic but it has super high activation energy if it does) or O2 which couldn’t help it get more stable. It seems like new research suggests ozone can react with water at STP to form peroxide (H202). Water is normally quite stable by itself, but H2O2 isn’t.
I don’t think the proposed mechanism in the paper makes sense but my guess is that one catalyst is causing peroxide to decompose into H2 and O2 while releasing energy, as it is wont to do. Then we get the haber process H2+N2 reaction, which is technically exothermic but with very high activation energy. But fortunately the fresh H2 molecule has a lot of energy and the second catalyst helps reduce the requirements further. And 3H2 + N2 = 2NH3 which is ammonia.
In chemistry, some molecular configurations are very stable and some are very unstable. Unstable things tend to react with other things in such a way that total stability increases; when it happens, energy is released (exothermic). Going from a stable configuration to an unstable one requires either a counterparty that was super unstable and became less so while reacting (still exothermic), or an input of energy (endothermic - basically never happens at equilibrium unless you’re directly applying high heat). However, just because a reaction is more stable at the end than the beginning doesn’t mean it will just occur, because in reality there are several stages the participants need to go through over an imperceptibly small time scale, some of which may actually require an input of energy to reach (activation energy).
Ozone is highly unstable but in air at STP, unless it meets another ozone, none of the normal molecules in air will react with it because they’re all super stable already (even N2, idk if the reaction can technically be exothermic but it has super high activation energy if it does) or O2 which couldn’t help it get more stable. It seems like new research suggests ozone can react with water at STP to form peroxide (H202). Water is normally quite stable by itself, but H2O2 isn’t.
I don’t think the proposed mechanism in the paper makes sense but my guess is that one catalyst is causing peroxide to decompose into H2 and O2 while releasing energy, as it is wont to do. Then we get the haber process H2+N2 reaction, which is technically exothermic but with very high activation energy. But fortunately the fresh H2 molecule has a lot of energy and the second catalyst helps reduce the requirements further. And 3H2 + N2 = 2NH3 which is ammonia.