Granular iron metal has been found to cause the reductive dechlorination of two important chloroacetanilide herbicides, alachlor and metolachlor. Aqueous solutions (113 mL) of the herbicides were contacted with 40 g of granular cast iron (CCI coarse, 40 mesh) with mild agitation at room temperature. First-order degradation rate constants were 0.12 and 0.10 h-1 for 10 mg/L solutions of alachlor and metolachlor, respectively. A two-site, rate-limited ...
