Theoretical investigations of systems relevant for the chemistry of the atmosphere.

The great effort put in the last decades in the study of the chemistry of air pollution and its effect on the depletion of ozone and on the greenhouse effect caused by combustion processes has shown the great importance of simple, but very reactive, species, as ions, radicals and “exotic” molecules. Being these species in the gas phase, it is particularly appropriate for their study the joint use of theoretical methods with experimental techniques, mass spectrometry specifically. Both these investigations methods are particularly suitable for applications involving the study of the atmosphere. The combined use of accurate theoretical methods and mass spectrometry techniques allowed us to discover recently several new species, both cationic and neutral, which can be important for the chemistry of terrestrial and planetary atmospheres.