Hydrogen Peroxide Production in the Radiolysis of Water with Heavy Ions

Abstract

The radiation chemical yields of hydrogen peroxide in water at neutral pH have been determined with protons, helium ions, and carbon ions at energies of a few to 30 MeV. The long-time yields of hydrogen peroxide increase with increasing linear energy transfer, LET, for protons and helium ions, but it decreases for carbon ions due to higher order reactions within the particle track. However, the maximum increase in hydrogen peroxide yields is only about 50% from γ rays (LET = 0.2 eV/nm) to helium ions (LET = 156 eV/nm). Methanol was used as an OH radical scavenger in order to probe the temporal dependence of hydrogen peroxide formation. The differences in the time dependence of the formation of hydrogen peroxide with various ions are discussed and compared to that observed with γ rays.

On the impact of reactive solutes on radiation induced oxidative dissolution of UO2

“…In 2 M chloride solution, G(H 2 O 2 ) was found to be approximately 60% of the value in pure water. This effect is significantly smaller than expected from results presented in reference [34], where it is shown that, at the present OH scavenging capacities (6 Â 10 9 chloride system and 1.9 Â 10 8 2-propanol system), G(H 2 O 2 ) is decreased by $80% and $30%, respectively. In order to further analyze the systems, MAKSIMA-Chemist [26] was used to perform numerical simulations of radiolysis of the different solutions.…”

Hazardous Gas Production by Alpha Particles

“…The dosimetry was determined by using Fricke dosimeter as described previously. [14] Electron density normalization was used to convert to the equivalent dose for the different polymers. The polymer samples were loaded into a quartz cell (2 cm in diameter and 4.5 cm tall) and inserted into the radiation zone of the cobalt source to be irradiated for fixed times.…”

Radionuclide behaviour in the near-field of a geological repository for spent nuclear fuel

“…From reactor chemistry it is well known that radiolysis gases and especially hydrogen develop protective conditions against further progress of radiolysis in deionized water [70][71][72]. Besides an electrochemically controlled inhibition of SNF corrosion in presence of H 2 , a radiolytically controlled protective hydrogen effect with respect to inhibition of SNF corrosion is considered (see [73] and references therein).…”