Nitrofluoranthenes

Nitro-PAH were determined by capillary GC-MC, after reduction to amines and conversion to pentafluoropropionamides. This made it possible to prove the presence of 229a, 230 and 3-nitrofluoranthene (231a) in most samples of airborne particular matter taken in Upper Silesia482. 

The structure of some phenolic metabolites of 3-nitrofluoranthene (231a) and its 2-nitro isomer have been analyzed by one-dimensional and two-dimensional NMR at 500 MHz. Chemical shifts suggest that the nitro group is not strictly coplanar with the aromatic ring system in solution and that metabolism at a distant site can alter the conformation about the C—N bond of the nitro group492. 

Chemical/Physical. 2-Nitrofluoranthene was the principal product formed from the gas-phase reaction of fluoranthene with OH radicals in a NOx atmosphere. Minor products found include 7-... 

Nitrofluoranthene, see Fluoranthene Nitrogen, see Formic acid. Maleic hvdrazide Nitrogen dioxide, see Ethyl ether. 2-Methyl-l,3-... 

Finally, while several volatile and semivolatile PAHs, e.g., naphthalene, the methylnaphthalenes, phenan-threne, pyrene, and fluoranthene, are not significant mutagens or carcinogens (hence not included in Table 10.13), they are precursors to powerful direct bacterial mutagens formed in gas-phase atmospheric reactions with hydroxyl during the day and nitrate radicals at night (see Section F). Furthermore, 2-nitrofluoranthene,... 

In 1997, Busby and co-workers reported that 2-nitrofluoranthene, an important product of atmospheric transformations (vide infra) was inactive in MCL-5 cells but a potent mutagen in hlAlv2 cells another important atmospheric reaction product, the nitrophenanthrene lactone 2-nitrodibenzopyranone (XI), was inactive in both hlAlv2 and MCL-5 cells. Furthermore, it was nonmutagenic in the forward mutation bacterial assay in the absence of rat liver postmi-tochondrial supernatant (-S9) but was mutagenic with the addition of S9 mix. 

The toxicology-based conclusion that the minimum concentration for 2-nitrofluoranthene to be an important human cell mutagen is 1 p.g/g, coupled with air quality sampling data showing its concentrations in respirable particles sampled from ambient air can in fact reach 10 pg/g, provides a useful example of a productive symbiotic interaction between atmospheric chemists and toxicologists. Such interactions are essential for reliable risk assessments of air pollution and human health effects of complex combustion-generated mixtures of gases and particles. 

BaP, benzo[g/z/]perylene, benzo[6]fluoranthene, in-deno[l,2,3-cd]pyrene, and benzo[/c]fluoranthene, contribute the major portion of the identifiable mutagenicity of the extract of the whole unfractionated sample, accounting for 8.6, 2.5, 1.7, 1.4, 1.2, and 0.8%, respectively, of the total mutagenicity of the whole sample. Two semipolar mutagenic PACs were also present at significant levels 2-nitrofluoranthene, a product of atmospheric reactions, and 6//-benzo[c<7]pyren-6-one, a primary O-PAC pollutant present in exhaust emissions from diesel engines and non-catalyst-equipped cars (see Sections E and F). These account for an additional 0.8 and 1.6%, respectively, of the identified whole sample mutagenic potency (see Table 10.26). 

As we have seen, key nitroarenes found in extracts of ambient particulate matter are 1-nitropyrene (1-N02-Py), predominant in primary combustion emissions, and 2-nitrofluoranthene and 2-nitropyrene, major products of gas-phase atmospheric reactions. Here we focus simply on their atmospheric fates as particle-bound species participating in heterogeneous decay processes. Formation of such nitro-PAHs in gas-phase reactions is addressed in Section F. 

In the absence of cosolutes, the photodegradation rates depended on the orientation of the nitro group. Thus 1-nitropyrene decayed relatively fast by the nitro-nitrite primary intramolecular photorearrangement process, followed by secondary radical reactions. However, 2-nitropyrene and 2-nitrofluoranthene were stable toward photolysis, consistent with the N02 group being in the same plane as the aromatic rings. 

However, when H-atom-donating cosolutes, e.g., certain phenols, were added, the photodegradation rates of both 1-nitropyrene and 3-nitrofluoranthene increased. In this case, the reaction occurred via H-atom abstraction from the phenol by the electronically excited nitro-PAHs. Feilberg and Nielsen concluded that the photodegradation of nitro-PAHs on both diesel particles and wood smoke proceeds primarily by radical formation. However, H-atom abstraction by the excited triplet states of 1-nitropyrene and 2-nitrofluoranthene may also contribute. 

In the mid-1980s, the discovery of significant amounts of 2-nitropyrene in ambient particulate matter collected in a rural region of Denmark by Nielsen and co-workers (1984) and 2-nitrofluoranthene in southern California by Pitts and colleagues (1985b) provided unique initial evidence for the possible formation of nitroarenes by reactions of precursor PAHs in ambient air. Thus, these compounds are not electrophilic nitration products of their parent PAHs and are generally not observed in combustion sources such as diesel soot see, for example, Table 10.34 and the report of Ciccioli and co-workers on the detection of emissions of 2-nitrofluoranthene and 2-nitropyrene solely from a very minor Italian industrial source (see Ciccioli et al., 1993, 1995, 1996, and references therein). 

Subsequently, researchers confirmed the presence of 2-nitropyrene and 2-nitrofluoranthene in extracts of samples of ambient POM collected at sites throughout the world and reported 2-nitrofluoranthene levels that... 

---