Atmospheric Chemistry of PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs

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2 Gas/Particle Partitioning of PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs in the Atmosphere 

As for other chemical compounds,70 72 in the atmosphere the PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs are partitioned14,22 23 30 38 39 41 44 45 47 51,62 73 between the gas and particle phases, with the gas/particle partitioning depending on the liquid-phase (or sub-cooled liquid-phase) vapour pressure at the ambient atmospheric temperature, PL, the surface area of the particles per unit volume of air (for example, cm2 of particle per cm3 of air), 6, and the nature of the particles and of the chemical being adsorbed.62,70,71 The fraction of the chemical present in the particle phase, 4 , depends on these parameters through an equation of the form62,70 72 

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Atkinson, R. 1996. Atmospheric chemistry of PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs. In Issues in Environmental Science and Technology, Issue No. 6, R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison, Eds. The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK, pp. 53-72. 

In the presence of hydrogen donors such as ethane, reductive dehalogenation occurs as in solution. The situation is different upon photolysis in air, when little of the starting material has been accounted for. Low yields of phenols were identified, presumably the result of trapping aryl radicals by Oy, the remainder of the starting material is assumed to have been mineralized. The atmospheric chemistry of PCBs, PCDDs, and PCDFs in the gaseous phase has been extensively reviewed by Atkinson. 

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