57 
5.2.2.2 Physical properties 
Chlordane is lipophilic and has a high octanol-water partitioning coefficient Kow- Some 
values are given in Table 11. The vapour pressure of technical chlordane is 1.47 hPa at 
25 °C. Water solubility of technical chlordane is 32 pg/L for pure water (Johnson- 
Logan et al, 1992). 
Table 11: log K 0 w values of main chlordane compounds (Simpson et al, 1995). 
Compound 
log K 0 w 
heptachlor 
6.10 
trans -chlordane 
6.22 
cis-chlordane 
6.10 
trans-nonachlor 
6.35 
cis-nonachlor 
6.08 
5.2.2.3 Metabolism 
The metabolite oxychlordane can be formed from cis- and /ran.s-chlordanc. Feeding of 
rats with pure trans-chlordane resulted in a larger concentration of oxychlordane in the 
tissues compared to c/.s-chlordanc, which was partly metabolised to more hydrophilic 
and more easily excretable products (Barnett and Wyman-Dorough, 1974).