Chlorinated solvents are one of the most frequently encountered contaminants in environmental forensic investigations. Given their chemical and physical properties and frequency of detection, they are of special interest and use in forensic studies. This article provides a general presentation of the chemistry of three commonly encountered chlorinated solvents and presents a non-traditional forensic approach to bracket their date of release and origin using solvent stabilizers and impurities associated with the production feedstock. The three chlorinated solvents selected to illustrate this approach are tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), and 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA). An overview of properties and degradation pathways for these three solvents is included in order to provide the proper context for this presentation.
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