ABSTRACT
Acetonitrile is released to the environment during its manufacture and use, from shale oil retorting and coal gasification, incineration of polyacrylonitrile, from automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke. Acetonitrile is expected to be mobile in soil and may evaporate from soil surfaces. It is likely to be unreactive towards direct photolysis in air and the half-lives for its reaction with OH radicals and ozone have been estimated to be 535 days and 860 days, respectively. Based on an estimated Koc value of acetonitrile would be weakly sorbed to most soils. The high water solubility, moderately high vapor pressure, and weak soil sorption of the compound suggest that volatilization from soil surfaces and leaching into ground water would be important. Due to nonreactivity of acetonitrile in the atmosphere, transport of the compound from troposphere to stratosphere is expected to occur and acetonitrile has been detected in the stratosphere.
