Liquid chromatographic aqueous product characterization of high-energy electron beam irradiated 2-chlorobiphenyl solutions.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are of environmental concern due to their toxic nature. Ionizing radiation has been suggested as a means to remediate PCB-contaminated samples in complex matrices. A set of experiments was performed to qualitatively and quantitatively determine the aromatic degradation products of 2-monochlorobiphenyl (2-MCB) in an aqueous system exposed to ionizing radiation. The degradation of 2-MCB was observed in aqueous samples that were exposed to radiation from a linear accelerator electron beam source. Analytical measurements performed by liquid chromatography (LC) equipped with an ultraviolet (UV) detector revealed that biphenyl, o-hydroxybiphenyl, p-hydroxybiphenyl, phenol, chlorobenzene, and other unidentified products were created after 2-MCB irradiation. These results suggest that sensitive and selective analytical methods will be required to account for all degradation products during ionizing radiation of aqueous PCB-contaminated samples.