ELECTROCHEMICAL OXIDATION OF METHYL-SUBSTITUTED CHRYSENES

Differential pulse voltammetry at a platinum electrode has been employed to measure oxidation potentials of all of six monomethyl-substituted chrysenes including the highly carcinogenic 5-methylchrysene in order to correlate their biological activities with their chemical redox properties. The oxidation potential of the 5-methyl isomer was found to be 1.300 V (vs Ag/AgCl reference electrode), which is about 50 mV more negative than those for many of the noncarcinogenic isomers. The results appear to support the general hypothesis that compounds with lower oxidation potentials are likely to be more biologically active than those with higher oxidation potentials as far as carcinogenesis with PAH is concerned. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.