Chlorine and bromine oxides: synthesis, structure, role in heterogeneous processes of stratospheric ozone decomposition

Heterogeneous chemical reaction of ozone with HBr and HCl adsorbed on the ice surface have been investigated under the temperatures 77 - 223 K. The processes occurs immediately with formation of dark brown, gold-yellow and yellow orange coloured condensates in the case of HBr and red condensate with HCl Accordingly to low temperature IR-spectroscopy in the case of hydrogen chloride the most thermodynamically stable ClO2 is the dominant product of the reaction. In the case of HBr Br2O forms initially. Then it suffers further sequential oxidation to Br2O3, BrO2 (Br2O4) and Br2O5. The optimization of the geometry of chlorine and bromine oxides mentioned above, has been performed using ab initio quantum mechanical calculations.