Simulation of the influence of N2O on the Chemical Stage of Water Radiolysis

Abstract

The absorption of ionizing radiation causes the radiolysis of water to form aggressive radicals. Water radiolysis plays an essential role in radiotherapy, radio sterilization, food irradiation, and wastewater irradiation because living cells consist mainly of water. Radical clusters arise immediately after irradiating water with ionizing radiation, and aggressive radicals damage living cells. These damages are caused mainly by SSB and DSB formation on DNA molecules. The mathematical simulation model, created with the help of Continuous Petri nets, is very suitable to study the dynamics of the chemical stage of water radiolysis. This mathematical simulation model, which includes the influence of oxygen on the chemical stage of radiobiological mechanism, was created in our previous work. This paper is extended to include the influence of N2O. The presence of N2O during irradiation of water plays a vital role because it increases OH radicals, which are mainly responsible for DNA damage. The mathematical model enables us to simulate the dynamics of the chemical reactions and the diffusion of radical clusters during chemical stage of water radiolysis.