Theoretical study on the chemical properties of polybrominated diphenyl ethers Original Research Article

Density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d) and B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ levels were performed to obtain the equilibrium structures, thermodynamic properties, and electron affinities (EA) of 14 polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners in the gas phase. All congeners except for those of symmetric BDE are found to have two or more conformational isomers. The optimized geometries of the most stable conformational isomers are in agreement with recently published X-ray crystallographic data. The thermodynamic properties of the congeners with a given number of bromine substitutions are strongly dependent on the substitution pattern, whereas the EA values also depend on the number of bromine substitutions. The vertical electron affinities (EAVer) calculated for the selected BDE congeners at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level are all positive except for di-BDEs, and are correlated with the initial reductive debromination rate constants obtained recently [Keum, Y.-S., Li, Q.X., 2005. Reductive debromination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers by zerovalent iron. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39, 2280]. All adiabatic electron affinities (EAAda) are positive, and suggest that the BDE congeners act as electron acceptors when reacting with receptors in living cells. The calculated EAAda values differ considerably from those of EAVer because of the large geometrical relaxation from the neutral to the anionic BDE congeners, highlighted by the lengthening of a C–Br bond. The elongated C–Br bond, which occurs at the α position, is directly involved in the debromination of n-bromodiphenyl to (n − 1)-bromodiphenyl ethers in the reductive debromination experiments.