in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). NO is mainly converted to NO 2 by chemical oxidation in the presence of oxygen. Initial selectivity analysis shows that three electron collision reactions are important for NO x evolution in O 2 /N 2 . The rate constants of these reactions decrease with increasing oxygen concentration. This is because oxygen is electronegative and thus reduces electron concentration. The rate constant of O 2 dissociation by electron collision reaction is almost two orders of magnitude higher than that of N 2 dissociation. NO formation occurs predominantly through N( 2 D) ϩ O 2 3 NO ϩ O. The critical oxygen concentration, defined as the concentration at which the NO x formation rate counterbalances the NO x decomposition rate, increases with increasing initial NO concentration.