Use of the SPARC software program to calculate hydrolysis rate constants for the polymeric brominated flame retardants BC-58 and FR-1025

ABSTRACT

The SPARC software program was used to estimate the acid-catalyzed, neutral, and base-catalyzed hydrolysis rate constants for the polymeric brominated flame retardants BC-58 and FR-1025. Relatively rapid hydrolysis of BC-58, producing 2,4,6-tribromophenol—and ultimately tetrabromobisphenol A—as the hydrolytically stable end products from all potential hydrolysis reactions, is expected in both environmental and biological systems with starting material hydrolytic half-lives (t_1/2,hydr) ranging from less than 1 h in marine systems, several hours in cellular environments, and up to several weeks in slightly acid fresh waters. Hydrolysis of FR-1025 to give 2,3,4,5,6-pentabromobenzyl alcohol is expected to be slower (t_1/2,hydr less than 0.5 years in marine systems up to several years in fresh waters) than BC-58, but is also expected to occur at rates that will contribute significantly to environmental and in vivo loadings of this compound.

KEYWORDS:

• Brominated flame retardants
• environmental fate
• hydrolysis
• polymers

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, which greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.