Theoretical prediction of the photoinduced chemiluminescence of pesticides

Although it is relatively easy to find chemiluminescent (CL) molecules working on the field of direct liquid phase (especially employing strong oxidants), the molecules found as chemiluminescent are normally very weak CL compounds for developing suitable analytical CL-procedures. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop new strategies to enhance in a simple way the native chemiluminescence of such a compounds, and even to increase the number of compounds to be determined by direct chemiluminescence. Photoinduced chemiluminescence (Ph-CL) results in a simple and easily on-line accessible strategy to solve these disadvantages. In the present paper, molecular connectivity, a topological method which allows an unique mathematical characterization of molecular structures by the so-named topological descriptors and their correlation with physical, chemical and biological properties of molecules was applied to predict the Ph-CL in liquid phase. Molecular connectivity calculations and discriminant analysis was applied to 72 pesticides for which either a Ph-CL or non Ph-CL behaviour was observed in an experimental screening. The screening test is based on the on-line photodegradation of pesticides by using an automated multicommutation based flow asssembly provided with a photoreactor consisting of 150 cm × 0.8 mm PTFE tubing helically coiled around a 20 W low-pressure mercury lamp. Photodegraded pesticides are detected by direct chemiluminescence of the resulting photo-fragments and their subsequent reaction with potassium permanganate in sulfuric acid medium as oxidant. The screening comprised pesticides with different molecular structures and relevant members of the most important families of pesticides were tested (oxime carbamates, sulfonylcarbamates, thiocarbamates, 1,3,5-triazines, organophosphorous, hydroxybenzonitrile, sulfonylureas, phosphonic acid derivatives, imidazolinones, carboxamides, aryloxyalkanoic acids, 1,2,4-triazinones, etc.). The theoretical predictions agree with the empirical results obtained by means of the screening test performed in the multicommutation flow-assembly.