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Environmental fate & pathways

Hydrolysis

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Description of key information

Phosgene decomposes in water extremely rapidly with an estimate half-life of 0.026 seconds at 25°C.

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Half-life for hydrolysis:
0.001 min
at the temperature of:
25 °C

Additional information

If released into water, phosgene is expected to hydrolyze rapidly if it dissolves. Phosgene hydrolyzes rapidly in water; hydrolysis of a 1% solution of phosgene in water is complete within 20 seconds at 0 deg C(1); however, other chemicals that hydrolyze fast, such as mustard gas, have been shown to have considerable stability in aqueous systems because of the slow rate of dissolution and this may be the case for phosgene.