Quantitative Structure-chromatographic Retention Relationship for Polychlorinated Dibenzothiophenes and Their Corresponding Sulfones

Polychlorinated dibenzothiophenes(PCDTs)and their corresponding sulfone(PCDTO2)compounds are a group of important persistent organic pollutants.In the present study,geometrical optimization and subsequent calculations of electrostatic potentials(ESPs)on molecular surface have been performed for all 135 PCDTs and 135 PCDTO2 congeners at the HF/6-31G*level of theory.A number of statistically-based parameters have been extracted.Linear relationship between gas-chromatographic retention index(RI)and the structural descriptors have been established by multiple linear regression.The result shows that two descriptors derived from positive electrostatic potential on molecular surface,σ+^2 andπ,together with the molecular volume(Vmc)and the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(ELUMO)can be well used to express the quantitative structure-retention relationship(QSRR)of PCDTs and PCDTO2.Predictive capability of the two models has been demonstrated by leave-one-out cross-validation with the cross-validated correlation coefficient(RCV)of 0.996 and 0.997,respectively.Furthermore,the predictive power of the models is further examined for the external test set.Correlation coefficients(R)between the observed and predicted RI values for the external test set are 0.997 and0.998,respectively,validating the robustness and good prediction of our model.The QSRR model established may provide again a powerful method for predicting chromatographic properties of aromatic organosulfur compounds.

Polychlorinated dibenzothiophenes（PCDTs）and their corresponding sulfone（PCDTO2）compounds are a group of important persistent organic pollutants.In the present study,geometrical optimization and subsequent calculations of electrostatic potentials（ESPs）on molecular surface have been performed for all 135 PCDTs and 135 PCDTO2 congeners at the HF/6-31G*level of theory.A number of statistically-based parameters have been extracted.Linear relationship between gas-chromatographic retention index（RI）and the structural descriptors have been established by multiple linear regression.The result shows that two descriptors derived from positive electrostatic potential on molecular surface, ■ and π,together with the molecular volume(Vmc)and the energy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(ELUMO)can be well used to express the quantitative structure-retention relationship（QSRR）of PCDTs and PCDTO2.Predictive capability of the two models has been demonstrated by leave-one-out cross-validation with the cross-validated correlation coefficient(RCV)of 0.996 and 0.997,respectively.Furthermore,the predictive power of the models is further examined for the external test set.Correlation coefficients（R）between the observed and predicted RI values for the external test set are 0.997 and0.998,respectively,validating the robustness and good prediction of our model.The QSRR model established may provide again a powerful method for predicting chromatographic properties of aromatic organosulfur compounds.