Preliminary study of the photolysis of fluorene in rainwater.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of toxic pollutants in the environment. In this preliminary study, photolysis of fluorene, a three-ring PAH, in rainwater collected in Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan, was studied. The photolysis kinetic was observed to be of first order under our experimental conditions. It was found that the photolysis rate constant was approximately 0.091 min(-1) with a half-life of 8.0 min. The photolysis kinetic of fluorene in rainwater was found to be very much faster than for particulate atmospheric PAHs reported in the literature.