Radiation chemistry of organic liquids saturated hydrocarbons

Radiation Chemistry of Organic Liquids Saturated Hydrocarbons. 

Ilya A. Shkrob, Myran C. Sauer, Jr., and Alexander D. Trifunac. Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 

In this chapter, we examine radiolysis of neat organic liquids. The better studied and most common organic solvents are saturated hydrocarbons and alcohols. By virtue of having low dielectric constant and only C-C and C-H bonds, hydrocarbons represent an ideal medium to examine the fundamental mechanisms of radiolysis in non-polar media. For lack of space, the discussion wUl be limited to paraffins, branched alkanes, and cycloalkanes. 

Many studies of saturated hydrocarbons have been carried out over the years we refer the reader to previous reviews by Hummel [1], Swallow [2], and HoLroyd [3]. Here we focus mainly on the last decade and discuss some of the more recent studies. Not too surprisingly, many issues examined in this chapter relate to the topics addressed in our own work we apologize for this deficiency and hope that other reviews in this volume would complement this chapter. Specifically, we concentrate on the early stages of radiolysis and exclude from our scope chemical transformations of secondary radiolytic products, in particular, those derived from the solutes. We also limit our examination to low-LET radiation, such as UV and VUV photons, x- and y-rays, and fast electrons. Significant progress has been made in understanding 

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Shkrob, LA., Sauer, M.C., Jr., Trifunac, A.D. Radiation chemistry of organic liquids saturated hydrocarbons. In Radiation Chemistry Present Status and Future Trends, Studies in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry 87, Jonah, C.D., Rao, B.S.M., Eds. Elsevier Amsterdam, 2001 175 pp. 

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