Kinetic modeling of the thermal destruction of lewisite

Organoarsenic compounds have been widely used as pesticides and chemical agents. Lewisite (C₂H₂AsCl₃), a blister agent, is a model of such compounds. A comprehensive detailed kinetic mechanism of combustion has been developed based on theoretical investigations. A benchmark allowed to select an appropriate methodology able to deal with such a heavy atom as As with precision and reasonable computational times. The density functional theory (DFT) method ωB97X-D was found to give the best results on target data. Core pseudo potentials were used for arsenic with the cc-pVTZ-PP basis set, whereas Def2-TZVP basis set was used for other atoms. The mechanism of the decomposition of lewisite includes all reactions involved in thermal decomposition and combustion mechanisms, including molecular and radical intermediates, and the decomposition reactions of small species containing arsenic. Simulation shows that lewisite decomposition starts around 700 K and is very little sensitive to the presence of oxygen since the radical reactions involve mainly very reactive Cl-atoms as chain carriers. The main reaction paths have been derived. As experimentally observed, AsCl₃ is the main arsenic product produced almost in one-to-one yield, whereas acetylene is an important hydrocarbon product in pyrolysis. In combustion, several arsenic oxides, eventually chlorinated, are produced, which toxicity need to be assessed.