Entirely new kind of ‘highly reactive’ chemical is found in Earth’s atmosphere

Scientists have detected a new type of extremely reactive substance in the Earth’s atmosphere that could pose a threat to human health, as well as the global climate.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have demonstrated that trioxides – chemical compounds with three oxygen atoms attached to each other – are formed under atmospheric conditions.   

Trioxides are even more reactive than the peroxides – which have two oxygen atoms attached to each other, making them highly reactive and often flammable and explosive.

Peroxides are known to exist in the air surrounding us, and it was thought that trioxides were probably in the atmosphere as well, but until now it has never been unequivocally proven.

‘This is what we have now accomplished,’ says Professor Henrik Grum…