The Destruction of the Ozone

Layer

High up in the
stratosphere,
Oliver Ozone
(O3) hangs out
soaking up the
rays

Meanwhile down on
Earth, an irresponsible
human inadvertently
releases a CFC
molecule into the air
while spraying her hair
for the big show.

Thats
Chloroflo
urocarbo
n
to you!!!

(There are many CFCs. This one is CFC-11 or CFCl3 )

I have him in
my sights!!!

Unaware of the danger

coming his way,
Oliver happily
continued doing his
job with the rest of the
ozone crowd. Little
did he know, big bad
CFC was headed his
way.

Biding his time until the sun reappeared

from behind a cloud, CFC patiently
waited to make his move.
Just when he thought of turning back, He
felt the familiar warmth of the
ultraviolet light dissolving the bonds
between his carbon and chlorine
atoms.

Free of their bonds,

the chlorine atoms
storm ahead to
capture their prey.

Go get em
boys!!!!

Unaware of what was

happening, Oliver
welcomes the new addition
and allows the chlorine to
attach to his outer oxygen
and form a new bond.

Before he realizes it, the

chlorine pulls off Olivers 3rd
oxygen leaving him one
atom short. Now instead of
ozone, Oliver is now just
plain oxygen (O2).

Youre h
wit
g
n
i
m
co
me!!
a!!!
Hahah

Chlorine ran away with his new addition, leaving poor

Oliver left to wonder what had just happened. Where
will he go? What will he do? Without his 3rd oxygen,
Oliver is no longer ozone. He cant do his job and
absorb the UV light from the sun, so he wont be
allowed to stay in the Ozone Layer.
Sadly, Oliver leaves his lifetime home to hopefully find
more like him in down in the Troposphere.

Excellent!
My Plan is
working
perfectly.

Help
me!!!

Gradually the
Chlorine and the
kidnapped oxygen
make their way
through the
stratosphere.
Eventually, they came
across Omar, a loose
oxygen atom.

Knowing that he couldnt leave a fellow oxygen in peril, Omar

takes action. As he approaches, he realizes that he has the
advantage. The bond between the kidnapping chlorine and the
snatched oxygen is weak at best. Being an atom of the same
type, Omar can create a much stronger bond with the captured
oxygen.

Making up his mind,

Omar grabs hold of the
kidnapped oxygen and
pulls it away from the
rogue chlorine.

Unfortunately, what Omar

didnt realize was that by
freeing the oxygen, he
enabled the chlorine to
go back and pull apart
another ozone molecule.

So the cycle starts all over again, and again, and

again.

.one chlorine atom can destroy over 100,000 ozone

molecules!!!

Over several
years, the
combined effect
of billions of
CFCs destroy
enough ozone
molecules, that
the ozone layer
becomes weak
and a hole starts
to form.

 The use of CFCs

have been banned in
the USA since the
1970s.
We are finally seeing
the hole shrink.
In 2007, it was 30%
smaller than in 2006.

Ozone Comic Strip Rubric

Create a comic strip of the ozone reaction and include the following:
Knowledge of material:
All 5 steps were represented correctly. (5 pts.)
The use of molecules and atoms was appropriate and correct.(5 pts.)
Creativity:
Comic strip told a story using the ozone reaction as an outline. (3pts.)
Personification was used appropriately. (2 pts.)
Effort:
Obvious time and effort went into the creation of the comic strip. (3pts.)
Comic strip was color and/or drawn neatly. (2 pts.)
Total points: 20

Molecules
CFCl3 = Chlorofluorocarbon
C = carbon
F = fluorine
Cl = chlorine
O3= Ozone
O = oxygen

Reactions
CFCl3
released by humans
UV light
3

CFCl C + F + 3Cl
CFCs get broken apart by UV light

Cl + O3 ClO + O2
ozone is destroyed by single chlorine

ClO + O Cl + O2
O2 = oxygen
ClO = chlorine monoxide

chlorine is released by single oxygen

Cl + O3 ClO + O2
the process contiues.