ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY - RATE CONSTANTS OF THE GAS-PHASE REACTIONS BETWEEN HALOALKANES OF ENVIRONMENTAL INTEREST AND HYDROXYL RADICALS

The rate constant (k(OH)) of the gas-phase oxidation of hydrohalo-meth anes and -ethanes by hydroxyl radical (QH) has been modelled in terms of eleven qualitative descriptors drawn from the chemical structure. T he multivariate model was calibrated on a training set of 16 compounds selected by a statistical design out of the investigated range of str uctures. It was experimentally validated by comparing the predicted wi th the actual k(OH).s available for 15 additional compounds. The stand ard deviation of the prediction errors in the reactivity range of the series (-14.77 less-than-or-equal-to log(k(OH)) less-than-or-equal-to 12.40 in our study) was found to be +/- 0.24.