Franklin Chen

The condensation trail, or contrail, that trails behind a jet plane is an everyday observable phenomenon. These manmade cirrus clouds can persist for hours, or even days and can spread over thousands of square kilometers. This is a concern because clouds are major variables that control Earth's atmospheric temperature and climate. Understanding the impact of contrails on Earth's climate is an active area of research. Further, contrail formation can be examined in terms of the operative thermodynamic phenomena. The process of contrail formation involves combustion, cooling, and ice formation, all common topics in the undergraduate physical chemistry curriculum. This project offers a good, comprehensive exercise for physical chemistry students.

David M. Whisnant, Lisa Lever, and Jerry Howe

The depletion of ozone in the stratosphere is caused chiefly by ozone reacting with chlorine and bromine from industrially manufactured gases. Several small chlorine oxide molecules are involved in the catalytic cycles that lead to the destruction of ozone. In this comprehensive project, students use computational chemistry to investigate a larger chlorine oxide, Cl₂O₄.