Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 3 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 3 / 42 / d / Solution

With $[{\mathrm{H}}_2]=5\times 10^{-6}[\mathrm{M}]$, a reaction of an electronically excited oxygen atom with hydrogen gives one OH and, after rapid H conversion, one HO${}_2$. The radical source becomesThis is about 4.75 times the original source. Holding water, oxygen, NO and radiation fixed keeps the fast radical partition approximately unchanged, while bimolecular termination makes total radical abundance scale as $\sqrt{S}$. Thusabout 2.18 times the original catalytic loss. This predicts a stronger ozone-loss tendency within the specified stationary box model, not a numerically determined percentage change in the ozone layer. The latter requires coupled odd-oxygen production, changing ozone concentrations, transport and the longer-term water budget; those have been held fixed here.