The relationship between chemical structures and photodegradation activity of 12 PAHs is studied using DFT and HF methods, and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis method. The equilibrium geometries and vibration frequency have been investigated by considering Solvent effects using a selfconsistent reaction field based on the polarizable continuum model. With DFT and HF methods, different quantum chemical structural descriptors are obtained by quantum chemical calculation and the results with DFT method are better for QSAR model. It is concluded that the photodegradation activity is closely related to its molecular structure. In the regression analysis, the main factors affecting photodegradation rate include the energy of the highest occupied orbital EHOMO and the number of six-carbon benzene ring N1, and the QSAR model successfully established is logkb = 6.046 + 54.830EHOMO + 0.272N1. Statistical evaluation of the developed QSAR shows that the relationships are statistically significant and the model has good predictive ability. EHOMO is the most important factor influcing the photodegradation of PAHs, because the higher EHOMO is, the more easily electron will be excited and the more easily molecular will be degraded. Comparison of the photodegradation of PAHs with their biodegradation shows that the committed step of biodegradation is that the effects of microorganisms make the chemical bond break, while in the committed step of photodegradation PAHs eject electrons.
The photodegradation mechanism of fenvalerate in water has been investigated by density functional theory(DFT).The geometries of reactants,transition states,intermediates and products are optimized at the B3LYP/6-31G* level.The calculated results indicate that the reaction process mainly includes the nucleophilic attack and the substitution reaction by hydroxyl radical to the carbonyl group.By vibrational frequency analysis and intrinsic reaction coordinate(IRC) method,the transition state and its reaction pathway are confirmed.Moreover,the changes of natural population analysis(NPA),calculated using the Natural bond orbital(NBO) method,are analyzed along with the degradation reaction which can explain the variation of chemical bonds.Additionally,the solvent effect is also investigated and the results show that the reaction preferably takes place in water.