A noval method of predicting soil organic carbon content normalized adsorption coefficients (Koc) of polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs)

By a soil column liquid chromatograph (SCLC) method, the soil organic carbon content normalized adsorption coefficients (Koc) of six polybrominated biphenyls (PBB15, PBB26, PBB31, PBB49, PBB103 and PBB153) are determined. Based on the similarity between the molecular structures of PBBs and PCBs, a simple linear predictive model has been developed with the correlation coefficient R = 0.9812 and standard error SE = 0.19. The log Koc values of any PBB congeners can be predicted by using the log Koc values of the corresponding PCBs according to this model. Using the published data for log Koc values of PCB congeners, log Koc values of all 209 PBB congeners have been for the first time predicted. Compared with the data obtained from the experiment, the results of prediction are very accurate.