Equilibration of polychlorinated biphenyls and toxaphene with air and water

The vapour pressure solubility and Henry's law constants (HLCs) for the individual chlorobiphenyl compounds (CBCs) in Arochlor 1242, 1254, and 1260 and the HLCs for toxaphene were determined with an equilibration method at 20 and 4C. Compound separation and quantification were performed by gas chromatography and electron capture detection. The HLCs of the CBC varied from 0.33-0.05 m atm.m3 per mol at 20C and those of the Arochlors were approximately 0.2 m atm.m3 per mol. This indicated that the transport rate of the compounds through the air/water interface should be dependent on both the gas- and liquid-phase mass-transfer coefficients. The solubility of PCB in water was shown to be lower when a solution was prepared by adding an organic solution of the PCB to water.