Did you know that tiny droplets of water in the atmosphere can transform a common air pollutant into powerful climate-warming compounds? In this episode of Papers Illuminated – Člankarnica, we sit down with Kristijan Vidović from the Department of Analytical Chemistry to explore the hidden chemistry taking place inside clouds, rain, fog, and atmospheric aerosol particles.

Our conversation focuses on his latest research, published in Environmental Science & Technology, investigating how naphthalene reacts in the atmospheric aqueous phase under sunlight and in the presence of HONO. Rather than producing the compound scientists traditionally expected, the study reveals that the dominant product under atmospherically relevant conditions is 2-nitro-1-naphthol, a previously unrecognized contributor to brown carbon. A second  ...