Elsevier

Marine Chemistry

Volume 19, Issue 4, September 1986, Pages 343-353
Marine Chemistry

Research paper
Photo-oxidation of dimethylsulphide in aqueous solution

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Abstract

Dimethylsulphide (DMS) is readily photo-oxygenated in the presence of micromolar amounts of photosensitizers such as methylene blue, rose bengal, anthroquinone and humic acid. Two moles of DMS are oxidized for every mole of molecular oxygen utilized consistent with dimethyl-sulphoxide being the oxidation product. Coastal seawater samples examined contained sufficient naturally occurring photosensitizer to photo-oxygenate DMS in sunlight with a first order rate constant of 2.4 × 10−5 s−1. This rate is rapid enough to imply that DMS is oxidized at approximately the same rate as it is lost to the atmosphere.

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