Elucidating the Fate of the Organochlorine Pesticide Chlordecone under Abiotic Reductive and Oxidative Processes: Kinetics, Transformation Products, and C vs Cl Isotope Fractionation

Pollution of French West Indies (FWI) soils by the organochlorine pesticide chlordecone poses environmental and societal concerns due to its long-term persistence. Assessing chlordecone degradation remains challenging due to analytical constraints to identify transformation products. Here, multielement compound-specific isotope analysis (ME-CSIA) was used to identify changes in stable isotope signatures of chlordecone produced during abiotic transformation reactions under reducing and oxidative conditions. Effective chlordecone transformation was shown in reactions with zerovalent iron (ZVI), vitamin B₁₂ and sodium sulfide (VSS), alkaline ascorbic acid (AA), and sodium persulfate activated by microwave irradiation (MWPS). Significant enrichment of ¹³C and ³⁷Cl was observed in all abiotic reactions, with ε_C,bulk and ε_Cl,bulk values ranging from −4.3 ± 0.4‰ to −2.3 ± 0.2‰ and from −2.6 ± 0.4‰ to −1.3 ± 0.3‰, respectively. Distinct mechanisms were evidenced in dual isotope plots, resulting in Λ values of 1.17 ± 0.28 for ZVI, 1.26 ± 0.50 for VSS, 2.06 ± 0.30 for AA, and 2.90 ± 0.50 for MWPS. Two major products were formed, 10-monohydrochlordecone and 8-monohydrochlordecone. Cl-CSIA data suggested that the first Cl substitution at the C₁₀-position likely produced secondary Cl isotope effects (via nucleophilic substitution). Overall, results suggest that ME-CSIA can help quantify in situ chlordecone degradation, distinguishing between different ongoing degradation mechanisms and fingerprinting pollutant sources from chlordecone formulations (Curlone).