Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Radiation Chemistry

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Radiation chemistry indicates the chemical effects of interactions of ionizing radiation with materials. The term ionizing radiation in a wider perception is also applied to photons or particles having sufficient energy to ionize the molecules of the medium: it involves photons with energies differ from the first ionization energy of the medium (~ 10 eV) up to some million eV (MeV), as well as energetic charged particles, electrons, positrons, accelerated heavy ions, etc. In a narrower perception, only those radiations are considered in radiation chemistry, whose energies are several series of magnitude higher than the energies of the chemical bonds. The result of the energy absorption is breaking or rearrangement of chemical bonds; i.e. decomposition of some of the beginning molecules and formation of new ones. High-energy photons, charged species with adequately high energy and neutrons might be absorbed by the nuclei and cause nuclear reactions.