Hexachlorobenzene

• HCB
• Perchlorbenzol

Solid ( crystalline powder )

2.049 g · cm -3

229.5 ° C

322.2 ° C

• Practically insoluble in water
• Soluble at an elevated temperature in benzene, diethyl ether, trichloromethane

Risk

Template: Infobox chemical / molecular formula search available

Hexachlorobenzene (HCB ) ( C6Cl6 ) is an aromatic compound. The molecule is constructed as benzene, except that all hydrogen atoms have been replaced by chlorine atoms. It is a colorless, crystalline powder obtained by chlorination of benzene in the presence of catalysts such as iron (III ) chloride ( FeCl3), at about 230 ° C in the liquid or the gas phase or by thermal decomposition of HCH ( hexachlorocyclohexane, see lindane) is obtained in the presence of chlorine.

Use

It was formerly used as dry against fungal diseases in cereals. Since 1981, hexachlorobenzene is no longer approved in Germany as a pesticide. It is one of the substances that were banned under the Stockholm Convention in the world ( see also " Dirty Dozen ").

Diseases

Reason for the ban was that several diseases with the inclusion of HCB could be related. So at about 4,000 people joined in eastern Turkey after consumption of bread prepared from seed a Porphyria cutanea tarda on. There also appeared the so-called Pembe Yara or pink disease on which a mortality rate of 95 % exhibited in infants with diarrhea, fever, and skin - to pink -colored papules on the back of the hand, fingers top and wrist, sometimes on the feet and legs, began. As a result, subcutaneous abscesses, pulmonary infiltrates, enlargement of the liver and a hypochromic anemia developed. The disease duration of recovery in the event of a well- to two months.

Analytical detection

The chemical- analytical detection in environmental samples, food and feed can be performed with chromatographic methods.