| he atmosphere is the primary route of global dispersion of many semi-volatile organic compounds (SOCs), including polychlorinated biphenyls, dibenzo-p-dioxins, and dibenzofurans. While the long-distance atmospheric transport of these compounds has been well established, the importance of chemical reactions that may occur while SOCs are in the atmosphere is largely unknown.;For most semi-volatile organic compounds in the vapor phase, the most significant atmospheric reaction is likely to be attack by the hydroxyl radical (OH). The importance of this removal pathway, relative to other loss mechanisms from the atmosphere, is dependent on the reaction rate of a given semi-volatile organic compound with OH. A system was constructed and validated to measure the reaction rate of OH with semi-volatile organic compounds in the laboratory. The system featured a small, heated, quartz chamber with on-line detection of reactants by mass spectrometry. OH radicals were generated by the 254 nm photolysis of O;The temperature dependent reaction rates of OH with 15 polychlorinated biphenyl congeners (PCBs), containing 0-5 chlorines, were measured. Calculated atmospheric lifetimes of PCBs due to OH-initiated reactions ranged from 2 days for biphenyl to 34 days for a pentachlorobiphenyl. Using an average of reaction rates extrapolated to atmospheric temperatures, the lifetime in the atmosphere for total PCBs due to OH reaction was calculated. A model for the vertical concentration gradient of PCBs in the troposphere was developed and used to calculate the flux (16... |
