Talk:Octabromodiphenyl ether

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Commercial OBDE versus pure OBDE[edit]

The article can be confusing:

OctaBDE is a technical mixture of different congeners.

refers to the formulation available in the market, while the structural formula corresponds to the pure chemical compound "octabromodiphenyl ether". I would change the wording to:

Commercial OctaBDE (also known as "octabrom" or simply "octa") is a technical mixture of different congeners.

Going further, perhaps "Commercial OBDE" should be given its own section, detailing the composition of the mixture. I have found the following information:

[...] approximately 10-12% hexabrominated diphenyl ethers (HxBDE), 44% heptabrominated diphenyl ethers, 31-35% OBDE, 10-11% NBDE, and < 1% DBDE (WHO 1994). It is not clear whether any pentaBDEs are present in the commercial OBDE products. [1]

and:

Typically, the commercially significant Octabroms contain 0-2 weight percent pentabromodiphenyl oxide 5-15 weight percent hexabromodiphenyl oxide, 40-55 weight percent heptabromodiphenyl oxide, 30-40 weight percent octabromodiphenyl oxide, 5-15 weight percent nonabromodipnenyl oxide, and 0-2 weight percent decabromodiphenyl oxide. [2]

Perhaps the composition should be represented as a pie-chart instead of a list, due to the uncertainties. I'm waiting for opinions. --Agent Fog 14:44, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi AgentFog. You won't probably get many opinions as the topic is too specific. I'm the only contributor to the article until now, so I would be happy, if you could make the changes as you suggested. The currently best publication about the congener composition is probably

La Guardia, M. J., R. C. Hale and E. Harvey (2006). "Detailed polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congener composition of the widely used penta-, octa-, and deca-PBDE technical flame-retardant mixtures." Environmental Science & Technology 40(20): 6247–6254. doi:10.1021/es060630m

but also the DRAFT RISK PROFILE For Commercial Octabromodiphenyl Ether is worth reading. --Leyo 19:12, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]