Vapour pressures, aqueous solubilities, Henry's law constants, partition coefficients between gas/water (K gw), N-octanol/water (K ow) and gas/N-octanol (K go) of 106 polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDE)

Abstract

Modelling the environmental fate of persistent organic pollutants like polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDE) requires the knowledge of a number of fundamental physico-chemical properties of these compounds. We report here the physico-chemical properties of 106 PCDEs, which are over 50% of all possible congeners. Vapour pressures P OL, water solubilities S H 2O and n-octanol/water partition coefficients K ow were determined with chromatographic methods. With these experimental data the Henry's law constants H, gas/water KGw and gas/n-octanol K GO partition coefficients were calculated. Vapour pressures and water solubilities and n-octanol/water partition coefficients of the PCDEs are close to those of similar groups of organochlorine compounds like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs). A similar environmental fate can be predicted and was partially already been observed.