[Reductive debromination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in aquifier by nano zero-valent iron: debromination...

Nano-zerovalent iron (nZVI) approach is effective in the debromination of polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The kinetics and degradation pathway are the key issues to understand the PBDEs degradation mechanisms. In this study, nZVI, synthesized through liquid phase reduction method, coupled with Triton X-100, could completely debrominate the highly brominated congeners of a commercial octa-BDEs mixture within 46 h. The debromination of octa-BDEs could be described by means of pseudo-first-order kinetics with the reaction constant (k) of 0.106 h(-1). In case of lacking the PBDE standards, an effective approach has been developed to determine the unknown PBDE congeners using the quantitative-structure retention relationship (QSRR) model. The retention time of all 39 PBDE congeners in a standard mixture was firstly analyzed with gas chromatography coupled with an electron capture detector (GC-ECD), and the relative retention time (RRT) for each standard was obtained after normalizing the RT by the average RT of BDE47 and BDE183. Then a QSRR model was developed by fitting the RRT of each PBDE congener and its specific RRT index. The debromination products of octa-BDEs were identified using this QSRR model and the degradation pathway of octa-BDEs was elucidated. The results showed that in the stepwise reductive debromination process of PBDEs by nZVI, meta-debromin was facile to be degraded.