| Abstract: | Hydroxyl radicals, generated radiolytically in N2O/O2‐saturated solutions, yield in their reaction with atrazine equal amounts of deethylatrazine and acetaldehyde (40% of OH radical yield) and deisopropylatrazine and acetone (16%), respectively. The precursors of deethylatrazine and acetaldehyde is their Schiff base which hydrolyzes slowly (OH–‐catalyzed: k = 5.2 dm3 mol–1 s–1). The hydrolysis of the Schiff base of deisopropylatrazine and acetone is too fast to be detected. In a pulse radiolysis experiment, the intermediate formed upon OH‐radical attack (k = 3·109 dm3 mol–1 s–1) has a strong absorption at 440 nm. It decays in the presence of oxygen (k = 1.3·109 dm3 mol–1 s–1), and upon deprotonation pKa(peroxyl radicals) ≈ 10.5] the peroxyl radicals thus‐formed eliminate superoxide radicals (k = 2.9·105 s–1). s‐Triazine itself reacts much more slowly with OH radicals (k = 9.7·107 dm3 mol–1 s–1). This can explain, why in the case of atrazine in comparison to other aromatic compounds, e.g. toluene, the addition of the OH radical to the ring (estimated at ca. 40%) is of relatively little importance as compared to an H‐abstraction from (activated) positions of the side groups. |
