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Predicting the Congener-Specific Environmental Behaviour of Perfluorinated Acid Contaminants Using Semi-Empirical Computational Methods
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- University of Winnipeg
- Okanagan College
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- Document Type:
- Poster
- Date:
- Received 08 June 2008 20:48 UTC; Posted 10 June 2008
- Subjects:
- Chemistry, Earth and Environment
- Abstract:
Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) are contaminants detected worldwide in a range of abiotic and biotic environmental matrices. The two major classes of PFAs include the perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluorinated sulfonic acids (PFSAs), both of which are considered persistent and potentially bioaccumulative. Current research and regulatory efforts are focussed on the straight-chain members of each PFA class and homologue group, primarily because these congeners are the major components of technical mixtures and are also available as pure standards. However, the numerous potential branched congeners in each PFA class represent a poorly understood family of environmental contaminants whose environmental and toxicological properties may be more important than the more prevalent straight-chain members. To help broaden the current understanding of PFA environmental fate and toxicology, semi-empirical computational methods were used predict fundamental physico-chemical properties of all potential C4 to C8 PCFA and PFSA congeners. Established quantitative structure-activity models for other multi-class emerging and legacy contaminants were applied to estimate key parameters related to the toxicology, environmental partitioning, and abiotic and biotic degradation mechanisms for each PFA class. The findings provide guidance for developing new analytical methods for separating and identifying PFAs in environmental and technical mixtures, prioritizing efforts on synthesizing authentic standards, and focussing toxicological studies on the congeners most likely to be of concern.
- Presented at:
- 91st Conference of The Canadian Society for Chemistry. Edmonton, AB, Canada, 27 May 2008
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- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
- How to cite this document:
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Rayne, Sierra, Forest, Kaya, and Friesen, Ken. Predicting the Congener-Specific Environmental Behaviour of Perfluorinated Acid Contaminants Using Semi-Empirical Computational Methods. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2008.1956.1> (2008)
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