“…In the second stage, however, around both 260 and 360 nm, a relatively slow decrease of the absorbance may be realized. Because alkaline decomposition of chlorine dioxide is well-known from the literature, , as a first step, one should check whether the decay of chlorine dioxide really belongs to the second stage of the reaction or it is simply due to the alkaline degradation of chlorine dioxide described by the following reaction: This equation explicitly shows that, during the course of alkaline decomposition, chlorite ion must form, which means that near 260 nm, where chlorite has a significant molar absorbance (ε ClO 2 – = 147 ± 3 M –1 cm –1 , which agrees soundly with the one determined by Furman and Margerum), the absorbance should have increased (chlorate does not have any significant absorption at this wavelength, and chlorine dioxide just slightly absorbs the light, having a molar absorptivity of ε ·ClO 2 = 51.9 ± 0.8 M –1 cm –1 ). Instead of that, we observed a slight decrease in the second slower stage of the reaction (as seen in Figure ), which indirectly rules out the possibility that in this stage the undesired side reaction of • ClO 2 decomposition occurs alone.…”