Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-99).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-167).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Wine, Paul; Committee Member: Huey, Greg; Committee Member: Nenes, Athanasios; Committee Member: Weber, Rodney; Committee Member: Whetten, Robert.

A number of weakly bound adducts play important roles in atmospheric chemistry, such as DMS OH and CS2 OH. The work comprising this dissertation involves kinetic and spectroscopic studies of adducts formed between halogen atoms and the important atmospheric trace gases CS2, CH3SCH3 (DMS), CH3I, and C2H5I. The results reported in these studies are useful for developing an understanding of the reactivity of these species and for testing the ability of electronic structure theory and reaction rate theory to predict or rationalize any observed trends. Oxidative pathways of both alkyl halides and sulfur compounds, especially DMS, are of atmospheric interest based on the roles of these species in affecting the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere and in the formation of new particles which impact the Earth s radiation budget and climate variability. The experimental approach employed laser flash photolysis (LFP) coupled with time resolved UV-visible absorption spectroscopy (TRUVVAS) to investigate the spectroscopy and kinetics of the gas phase adducts: SCS Cl, CH3I Cl, C2H5I Cl, (CH3)2S Br, and (CH3)2S I.