Ozone Promotes Chloropicrin Formation by Oxidizing Amines to Nitro Compounds

Chloropicrin formation has been associated with ozonation followed by chlorination, but the reaction pathway and precursors have been poorly characterized. Experiments with methylamine demonstrated that ozonation converts methylamine to nitromethane at similar to 1.00% yield. Subsequent chlorination converts nitromethane to chloropicrin at similar to 50% yield under the conditions evaluated. Similarly high yields from other primary amines were limited to those with functional groups on the beta-carbon (e.g., the carboxylic acid in glycine) that facilitate carbon-carbon bond cleavage to release nitromethyl anion. Secondary amines featuring these reactive primary amines as functional groups (e.g., secondary N-methylamines) formed chloropicrin at high yields, likely by facile dealkylation to release the primary nitro compound. Chloropicrin yields from tertiary amines were low. Natural water experiments, including derivatization to transform primary and secondary amines to less reactive carbamate functional groups, indicated that primary and secondary amines were the dominant chloropicrin precursors during ozonation/chlorination. Ozonation followed by chlorination of the primary amine side chain of lysine demonstrated low yields (similar to 0.2%) of chloropicrin, but high yields (similar to 17%) of dichloronitrolysine, a halonitroalkane structural analogue to chloropicrin. However, chloropicrin yields increased and dichloronitrolysine yields decreased in the absence of hydroxyl radical scavengers, suggesting that future research should characterize the potential occurrence of such halonitroalkane analogues relative to natural radical scavenger (e.g., carbonate) concentrations.