Coupling a Knudsen reactor with the short lived radioactive tracer (13)N for atmospheric chemistry studies.

A Knudsen cell flow reactor was coupled to an online gas phase source of the short-lived radioactive tracer (13)N to study the adsorption of nitrogen oxides on ice at temperatures relevant for the upper troposphere. This novel approach has several benefits over the conventional coupling of a Knudsen cell with a mass spectrometer. Experiments at lower partial pressures close to atmospheric conditions are possible. The uptake to the substrate is a direct observable of the experiment. Operation of the experiment in continuous or pulse mode allows to retrieve steady state uptake kinetics and more details of adsorption and desorption kinetics.