A Little Chemistry: The Decomposition of Ozone

Time for a bit of chemistry.  That is, after all, what I love.

This is a dead topic.  I'll admit it.  I still don't believe in it (I might when Al "Douche Bag" Gore dies, but for now...).  But this particular argument had never been presented to me.  Had it, I might have understood it, but I doubt it.  Let's explain the diagram, first.

This is a representation of an Ozone Molecule.  O₃

As this molecule is displayed, you can see that the molecule is triatomic (has 3 atoms).  It is in the VSPER shape of "bent."  It's shaped a lot like water, only the angle is bigger.  You can see that it's polar (has a positive end and a negative end).  You can see that the bonds are more like 1.5 bonds, as they're somewhere between double and single bonds.

This is only the beginning of the lesson.  You are, of course, acquainted with O₂, as about 21% of what you're breathing right now (assuming you're living and on the planet Earth) is diatomic oxygen.  And O is the monatomic (one atom) form of the element.

This is the important part because I'm now going to explain a little Thermochemistry which can get into Thermodynamics.  Hold on to your hats:

The balanced chemical equation on the top line is the decomposition of Ozone.  It goes from the triatomic O₃ to a molecule of monatomic O and a molecule of diatomic O₂.  This reaction, however, doesn't happen from nothing.  It has to be forced, essentially, because it's what is considered nonspontaneous.

A nonspontaneous reaction is one that will always end up with more reactant than product at equilibrium.  If this gets too complicated, ask and I can explain further.

As you can see from the next line, the decomp.  of Ozone has a k value of .0063.  The exact value is a little longer, I think, but for all intents and purposes, .0063 is good enough.

k is an equilibrium constant.  It tells us that at equilibrium, for Ozone, there is a greater concentration of Ozone than of monatomic O and O₂, combined.  As you should know from any gen-math class, a small decimal usually means the denominator is much larger than the numerator.  This is the case.

So, at 298 kelvin, Ozone is not going to randomly decompose.

This is counter to what we're led to believe.  If you pay attention, you're told that the Ozone layer naturally decomposes.  While it does, it doesn't to any degree of major damage, and since the reaction is reversible (it goes both directions), it's barely a problem as the Ozone layer is capable of fixing minor damage.

While I'm still of the opinion global warming doesn't exist, you can tell where this would be headed if I wanted to burn a dead horse with UV radiation.