Structure and Reactivity
Diethyl phthalate, or o-Benzenedicarboxylic acid diethyl ester consists of a benzene ring with two carboxylic acid ethyl esters attached to it in the ortho (1,2) pattern. It is a highly conjugated system, as the pi-cloud on the benzene ring, the p-orbitals on the carbonyl atoms and the lone pairs on the oxygens are all conjugated. The substituents are meta-directing, and they are ortho to each other, so all positions in the ring are more or less equally deactivated. Diethyl phthalate is likely to undergo biodegradation in the environment. Abiotic degradation processes such as hydrolysis, oxidation, and photolysis are unlikely to play significant roles in the environmental fate of diethyl phthalate.
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