CHEMICAL CONSEQUENCES OF NONHOMOGENEOUS ENERGY DEPOSITION BY IONIZING-RADIATION

The use of radiation chemical measurements to address the initial energy deposition events of water radiolysis is discussed. Experiments that probe both the number of ionisations in a spur and the average size of the spur in radiolysis are detailed. The experimental results are compared with present knowledge. The number of ions in a spur is consistent with the (large) range of calculated values. The spatial distribution of an electron relative to the point of the initial ionisation is determined by the loss of electron kinetic energy to vibrational modes of the solvent and not due to the energy loss to electronic states of the solvent. It is suggested that the use of a radiation chemical variable, such as spur number distribution and spatial distributions from track structure calculations might facilitate the understanding of radiation damage mechanisms in biological systems.